Antidote
by Zarafla Kirtan-Pherrin
Summary: The sequel to "Poison". 3 years have passed since Jim and Dimitri were last together. How much have things changed since then? There seems to be a conspiracy in the mix and it's up to Jim and Dimitri to find out what it is...
1. Unwelcoming News

Antidote-

Paired Couple: Jim HawkinsX?

_A/N: This is the sequel to "Poison". This takes place about three years after the original fanfiction. Jim Hawkins and everything resembling Treasure Planet are owned by Disney. Yatta yatta yatta... Oh, and if you don't like yaoi, boy-on-boy romance, or sexual themes, then keep your bigoted mouth shut and move on, please and thank you! _:)

Jim quickly got off of his solar surfer, the day fading into dusk. Expertly, he kicked the solar surfer out from underneath his feet and he grabbed it with the tips of his fingers and tucked it under his arm, racing to the Benbow Inn.

It had been three years since he had last heard of Dimitri Sudayev, and he hadn't heard of or from him since. Although the ache, the longing, would always grab a vice-like grip on his emotions, Jim had to move on.

He still helped his mom out at the inn, but he was also working at a mechanics shop about two towns over on the weekends; sometimes they insisted he work four days out of the week. Jim usually stayed with his co-worker friend for every night that he stayed in the town. He was a junior mechanic, but he was praised for his attentiveness and quick reflexes. Jim knew that he could make an enjoyable career out of this pursuit at the shop-and would even become an engineer one day-but for the moment, he worked on small, everyday repairs for common vehicles. It was boring, easy work, but he seldom complained.

The brunette rushed through the front door of the inn and set his solar surfer against the wall next to the door, scanning the busy dining room.

Sarah Hawkins looked over at the front door and smiled warmly, albeit somewhat sadly, making her way over to her son. They momentarily embraced.

"Hi mom. It's great to see you." Jim smiled casually, stepping out of the hug.

"It's great to see you, too, Jim. How was your weekend at the shop?" She wiped a stray tear of happiness from her dark brown eyes.

"It was alright. Not too busy." He remarked. "How's things here?"

"The same, really. But it's so good to have you home." She walked over to a nearby table and picked up an abandoned cup and bowl. Jim followed in her wake as she collected more dishes for the inevitable chore. "It's been a mess all weekend. If Delbert hadn't been showing up every day to at least keep me company, I would have gone insane."

"How's Doppler doing?"

"He's doing good. You actually had just missed him a half-hour ago when he was still here."

"I'll see him tomorrow I guess." Jim shrugged, following her into the kitchen.

"Is there anything you want to eat? I had just got done serving up dinner and there's still plenty of Glorb meatloaf left."

"I'll have some of that. I'm starving!" Jim smiled as he sat down in a chair at the kitchen counter, appreciating the decent food that he would be eating. The food that his coworker friend wasn't exactly fresh.

Moments later, the twenty-one year old was digging into a plate of a dark orange slab of meat while his mom was cleaning a small pile of dishes in the sink.

"So, any mail for me today?" asked Jim casually between mouthfuls of food, his eyes never leaving his plate.

The sudden _clink _of dishes colliding into each other in the sink caught his attention. He looked up and saw Sarah shaking.

His chair fell to the floor as he sprang up and turned her around. "Mom? What's wrong?"

She was biting her lip, preventing herself from crying. Tears welled up in her eyes anyway. In a quivering voice, the woman looked up at him-since he had grown so tall in the past couple of years-and said in a defeated whisper, "Oh Jim... I wish there was another way for me to tell you this... We received a message about Tyranisernum two days ago..."

Jim's heart skipped a beat. _Tyranisernum...?_

"I was just so h-happy for you that I couldn't wait until you got home... I thought he was contacting you... I looked it over... and..." Unable to say more, she clapped a hand over her mouth to stifle her sobs, and pulled out a wrinkled paper from her apron pocket before turning her back to him.

His hand quivering with fear, he unfolded the paper and read it.

**Notice:**

**All nearby planets and their occupants of quadrant 2138 of the galaxy, be aware! At 15:00 on Friday, the thirty-first week of this era, there was a space pirate attack on the Planet Tyranisernum. The planet had been looted and set aflame, with many of the occupants killed or left to die with mortally fatal wounds. There are NO ships to be dispatched to Tyranisernum at this time, while the Galaxy Police are out looking for these vagabonds. Keep a close lookout for any suspicious aircrafts or characters. They are on the loose! Should you witness anyone that is a pirate or belongs to any pirate vessel, or should you witness the vessel itself, please contact the Galaxy Police as soon as possible! We urge you to keep close to home, with the doors closed and locked. At this time, we are also not allowing any press release of this attack so that the attacking vessel and its crew members do not know that any other planet knows of their attack and so that we can locate their position and bring them to justice at a quicker rate.**

**Thank you for your cooperation. **

**Quadrant 2138 Galaxy Police**

The notice fell to the floor...

_A/N: Oh noes! Wait till the next chapter to find out more!_


	2. A Quest

Antidote-

Paired Couple: Jim HawkinsX?/SLASH!/Lemon

_A/N: Yatta yatta yatta... Blah blah blah... Same disclaimers, warnings, and a big fuck off to anyone who has an issue with yaoi, boy-on-boy romance, sex, sexual themes, and such... There is always a back button if you don't like what you read here! Please use it! Otherwise, enjoy having your childhood raped repeatedly... :D You know you like it..._

Jim shook his head, shock twisting his features into disbelief, sadness, and overwhelming grief. This wasn't real. This wasn't real. This was a nightmare. It had to be a nightmare. Dimitri couldn't be... No... He couldn't be...

_He can't be dead!_

Although they had long parted ways when Dimitri was offered to go to the University on Tyranisernum for Astrophysics, Jim held out the hope that they would see each other again. Despite the long commute and how rare the cruisers traveled in that direction of the galaxy, Jim had entertained thoughts of earning up enough money to perhaps gain passage on a cargo ship over there to see him.

But now...

Jim shook his head again. Over and over. His vision blurred, became tunneled. He tasted copper on his tongue. He had bit his lip in an attempt to stop himself from crying, but he tore through the skin.

Instead of rakish, uncontrollable sobbing, he began to scream.

~/~/~/~/~/~/~/~/

Jim woke up in his bed, a cool rag resting on his forehead. He brushed it aside and sat up in the dark room, tasting faint copper. His head throbbed, as if he was just getting over a bout of the flu, and it hurt to breathe. Jim tried to clear his throat, but it was dry and the irritated tissue of his esophagus felt like brittle paper rubbing on stone when he tried to speak. His eyes felt puffy and swollen from the tears that he had shed.

Gently touching his lips, he traced the edges of a fresh scab on his bottom lip.

He was confused. He couldn't remember what had happened. Did he black out?

His bedroom door opened, light pooling into the inky depths. In the threshold stood Sarah and Delbert, faint-hearted and commiserating.

"Oh Jim!" His mother suddenly ran to his bed and threw her arms around him. "I'm so sorry... I should have told you sooner."

"W-what happened?" Jim rasped weakly.

Delbert turned on the light and looked upon them with despairing eyes. "You fainted, Jim. Caused quite a stir with that screaming you were doing. You had the whole inn panicking! You lost consciousness from lack of oxygen. Sarah called me as soon as you hit the floor and we brought you up here."

Jim looked away, his grief boiling back to the surface as he recalled screaming Dimitri's name, just before fading into a dizzying spiral to the floor in the kitchen.

"How long was I out?"

"About five hours."

Sarah unhooked herself from her son and wiped the tears from her eyes, hiccuping slightly from crying.

"I'm sorry..."

"It's not your fault, Mom." Jim hugged her tightly.

"I kn-know..."

Jim just sat there for a moment, reliving the fresh pain that this tragedy had brought him. It seemed so surreal... To know that Dimitri Sudayev, his boyfriend, was gone, took the air from his lungs. It was all too painful.

But through the haze of his depression and despair, something came to mind...

_**The planet had been looted and set aflame, with many of the occupants killed or left to die with mortally fatal wounds... left to die... left to die...**_

_**Left to die.**_

With sudden, grim determination, Jim Hawkins pushed himself out from underneath the covers and grabbed his boots from the foot of his bed. Sarah and Doppler looked at him, puzzled.

"Jim?" Doppler asked, noting how Jim looked as if he was getting ready to leave. "Where are you going?"

"I'm going to go find him."

"Going to find him? Going _where_?" Implored the hostess of the inn in exasperation as she got up from the bed.

Her son didn't answer as he laced up his boots. That was all the answer she needed.

"Jim, no! You read what that notice said; no one is allowed to go to Tyranisernum while those pirates are still out there! It's too dangerous!"

"I have to find him!" He finally stated in a fit of impatience. "He could still be on the planet, injured and hoping someone will come along to find him! What if he's still alive?"

"How do you plan on getting there, then?" She reasoned. "The Galaxy Police are patrolling Tyranisernum to make sure that no one goes over there. You'll be taken into custody, and this time, I won't be able to keep you from going to jail."

"I don't care!" He yelled desperately. "I have to get to him! Damn the consequences! I have to know if he's safe!"

"Jim, your mother's right," Doppler interjected, taking his glasses and cleaning the lenses on his white button up shirt, "you wouldn't be able to get within two miles of Tyranisernum without being caught. What you're doing is dangerous. And even if you managed to get over there, there's no guarantee that Sudayev is alive. What's worse is that those pirates could end up picking you off on your way over there."

Jim growled impatiently. "You don't get it! I have to get over there! I have to see if he's alive!"

Delbert set his glasses back on the bridge of his nose, calm as can be, before he stated, "And that's why I'm going with you..."

_A/N: I love cliffhangers! Tee hee hee! Until next time! Stay tuned and R&R as always!_


	3. Captured!

Antidote-

Paired Couple: Jim HawkinsX?/SLASH!/Lemon

_A/N: If you don't like what's in here, go to the left of this web page with your mouse until it hovers over an arrow pointing backwards, and then click it. Treasure Planet belongs to Disney. Enjoy another compelling segment!_

"I can't have you do that, Doc."

Doppler's ears drooped in concern. "Why not, Jim?"

"I couldn't bear the thought of having you get hurt, should I encounter those pirates. I have to do this alone."

Sarah huffed impatiently, not liking that her son was disregarding her pleas and warnings. "That's exactly why I don't want you to do this, Jim! You could get hurt! I lost your father to the stars, I don't want to lose you, too!"

Jim turned to his mother, determination stamped on his face. "You won't," his chin tilted upward in a proud stance, "I won't let that happen."

"I can't let you risk that! I'm not losing you just so you could go off and get killed for trying to prove something contrary to that notice!"

"So, what? Should I just give up, then, Mom? Should I let Dimitri just die out th-"

"He's gone, Jim!" She shouted at last, unable to hold onto her frustrations and fear any longer. "There's nothing we can do!"

The shout felt like a punch to his gut. He quieted immediately, angry beyond all comprehension, shaking in the rush of emotions and adrenaline. Jim's eyes were flat and devoid of kindness at that moment. They only resembled dark pools.

"...Fine." He said at last, biting out the word like a vile taste of Cerulean jelly worms.

Although it seemed the fight was over, Doppler knew better. He knew that determined look on Jim's countenance well enough before he walked out of the room and stalked downstairs to the kitchen. Doppler knew too well that the youth had something up his sleeve.

~/~/~/~/~/

Later that night, a door quietly opened on oiled hinges. The inn was silent as all of the patrons had gone to bed hours ago. Jim carried his boots in his hands, stepping lightly on the wooden floor boards. He managed to slip past the threshold and close his door. The darkness surrounded him.

Jim walked as fast as he dared down the stairs, cringing when he heard the last step give a faint groan in protest. Not a soul came to the beckoning of that squeaky step.

Sighing with relief, he managed to get to the front door. He took the set of four keys hanging from a hook next to the door way and fumbled with the mess of metal, trying to remember by touch which key went into what lock. After a frustrating ten minutes, looking over his shoulder from time to time in paranoia and randomly jamming keys, he managed to unlock the door. Nervous perspiration covered his brow.

He found himself jogging to the side of the house, in the light of the Space Port many miles away in orbit, searching for the cruiser that one of the inn's customers used. As luck would have it, he found two sitting side by side. After much illegal programming and hard wiring, Jim had it operational and ready to take off.

Without a second thought, he flew the speedy freight cruiser out towards his destination: Tyranisernum.

~/~/~/~/~/

Three hours later, Jim checked the digital compass again, like he had been since he had left the Benbow far behind. The cruiser clocked at speeds of up to 210 miles an hour, at which Jim was sailing at its peak. Only 23,453 miles to go...

He had long since been able to see the planet from this vantage point, although it resembled the size of a purp.

And from this vantage point, the planet looked every bit of the destructive chaos that it seemed to have been described as...

He couldn't dwell on the what ifs. Jim had to believe that he would find Dimitri, safe and whole. He had to completely, whole-heartedly believe in it. Or else... what was left to believe in? He was determined to bring Dimitri Sudayev back to safety.

Out of the corner of his eye, Jim thought he saw a flicker of some sort. It was distracting, but he disregarded the illusion when he couldn't discern a source. He adjusted the course of direction, thinking of stopping by the Space Port for provisions and rest before resuming his journey. He was a bit worn out, although his resolve for finding Dimitri played a great factor in his determination.

...There was that odd peripheral image again.

He thought he might have seen another cruiser, which would have been possible, considering the sound of his engines drowned out all other sounds around him. Thinking of it as no consequence, Jim continued on his path towards the fate of the damaged planet.

The other freight cruiser came out of nowhere next to him, the vehicle battered and looking as if it had seen a war.

It's driver was a battle-scarred, male feline with a torn ear and a crooked, psychotic grin. Adorned upon its body was a well-worn white shirt, black boots, and a pair of rugged brown slacks that were patched in many places. A gold hoop earring pierced the injured ear near the tip and the feline wore several chains around its neck. To finish the menacing look, he wore an eye patch over his right eye.

An electronically charged blaster pointed in Jim's face.

While he had been concentrating on how to dispatch the sudden enemy, a swarm of other characters surrounded him with blasters of their own, sufficiently cornering him.

"Come out t' play, haven't ya, sonny?" Taunted a middle-aged salamander, who also held a throwing knife in the opposite hand as his blaster.

Thinking fast, Jim stepped on the surge button on the floor, seeing if he could just charge his way out of the congregation. Instead, a blaster clipped him on the shoulder, throwing him down to the floor of his freight cruiser.

"Give it up," rasped a muscled human, identifying himself as the shooter, "you can't outdistance us, nor can you fight us!"

Breathing heavily, Jim sat up, clutching the grazed shoulder, wincing.

With so many of them pointing their guns at him, and he, having been stupid to have not brought a weapon with him from home, put his arms up in surrender.

~/~/~/~/~/

_A/N: And scene! R&R as always! We'll just have to wait for that special update, soon to come!_


	4. The Compass Blade

Antidote-

Paired Couple: Jim HawkinsX?/SLASH!/Lemon

_A/N: If you don't like what's in here, go to the left of this web page with your mouse until it hovers over an arrow pointing backwards, and then click it. Treasure Planet belongs to Disney. Enjoy even yet, another exciting segment brought to you by yours truly! This is where things take a mental back flip!_

No matter how hard he struggled between the feline and the salamander, Jim could not escape as he was lead to an older Ethirium star ship moments after capture. The ship was made of a dark-stained wood and rivaled the size of most Galactic Police vessels, which most knew were around one-hundred and twenty feet long and seventy feet wide. The girth of this monster probably trumped the standard ship size! Knowing that, Jim had a hard time comprehending just how big this ship really was. He craned his neck to see from bow to stern as they boarded the vessel.

Just before Jim was taken over the side to board, he caught a glimpse of something etched into the side of the ship. _The Compass Blade._

Finally, he was dropped onto deck by the pirates who had held him captive during the small trip to the ship. The whole crew was assembled around him, holding swords and blasters in his direction, and giving him suspicious glances or evil smirks.

"Well, well, well... It looks like we have us a new recruit, boys!" Exclaimed a quad-pedal, six foot tall crustacean with a gray exoskeleton, who wore a gray-stained linen shirt, a canvas doublet, a leather sash over one shoulder, and a black bandanna around his forehead. His six eyes were ruby red and squinted in amusement. He grinned wickedly through the pincers set around his mouth. "Unless he wants to be target practice for our guns!"

The surrounding crew members shouted triumphantly, laughing all the while.

The crustacean picked Jim up by the collar of his shirt with a hooked claw. "The name's Targon, lad. First mate to the elite Captain of the finest pirate ship in all of the Etherium, The Compass Blade! What would be your name and the business you have wandering this far out into the galaxy?"

In response, Jim spat in his face. Targon slammed him down onto the deck and pinned him with a claw, each end point stabbing into the wood and the middle barely a hair's breadth from his throat, like a cuff.

"You want to try that again, boy?" Targon threatened, lifting his free claw in front of Jim's vision.

"...F-Fuck you!" He whispered with difficulty, unable to breathe properly with about three hundred pounds pressing him down into the floor. A heavy claw slammed into the side of his face, over and over again, for about two minutes

The First Mate put him back onto his feet, giving him a furious glare.

"Just for that little stunt you pulled there, I think the brig will serve you better than being recruited into the crew. We'll just have to wait and see what the Captain will want to do with you later." Targon motioned for a human to join him by his side. The man was dark-skinned, five foot and ten inches tall, and bald, with the exception of a small goatee. Tattoos and brands marred his skin, while small gold hoops ringed his ears. His eyes were of grim determination and a frown rested easily on his lips. He looked to be in his early forties.

"Ravengrail, see to it that this dog is lead to the brig and kept there..."

"Aye, Targon."

The man, Ravengrail, took Jim by the arm and lead him down a flight of stairs with a sword pressed against his neck. From the main deck, they walked down the stairs onto the berthing deck and turned right to another flight of stairs. At the end of the long, curving hallway, Ravengrail managed to lock Jim in one of the cells of the brig, stowing the ring of keys inside his linen shirt, and walked back down the corridor.

The air smelled decayed and stale. Jim stifled a sneeze and tried to pull on the rusted bars of his cell, hoping the frail-looking bars would give out or at least bend. The only light source came from a flickering electric lantern that hung from an iron hook in the wall at the end, deepening the shadows around the rest of the brig.

Pulling on the bars to no avail, the brunette finally gave up and sat down on the floor, unable to do much else. He pounded the floorboards with a fist, frustrated. Tears welled up in his eyes, but refused to break down his face.

_I'm such an idiot!_

Locked away on the pirate ship that had destroyed the planet Tyranisernum, Jim knew he was fated to servitude within the ranks of the crew for the rest of his life once he swore himself to the Captain or worse, death, if he did not. He would either join these vagabonds that had killed Dimitri, or join him in the afterlife.

At that notion of thought, Jim Hawkins shed tears. Gasping for air through his quiet sobs, he finally had accepted the death of Dimitri Sudayev.

He was gone. Forever.

~/~/~/~/~/~/

It felt like hours before someone came down into the almost deserted brig. Jim got up from the floor and tried to peer around the corner of his cell to see who was coming.

Instead of Ravengrail or Targon, like he assumed, the male feline that had helped capture him came from around the bend, holding a metal tray with a small bowl, spoon, and rotting purp on it. He slid the tray underneath the door, where there was just enough room for it to fit.

The pirate chuckled, looking at the pitiful state that Jim was in with his one good eye, and asked sarcastically in a raspy voice, "Liking your time so far on The Compass Blade, kid?"

"I will once I kill all of you..."

"Ah... Such strong words for a pint-sized human your size, scum. Tell me, how were you planning on killing all of us, again? I'd love to hear it from ya... Tell ol' Ganttus your bright idea!" He laughed, mocking him.

Jim remained quiet, silently brimming with rage.

"You should be so lucky as to have been invited as a recruitment for this ship, lad!" Ganttus beamed, then suddenly gave a disgusted look. "I wouldn't say you are now, though, seeing as the Captain will string your guts around the solar sails for what you did to Targon's generosity earlier this morning. No one says no to working for The Compass Blade, and those who do end up dead."

When nothing else was forthcoming from Jim, Ganttus shook his head with a snort and made his way back down the corridor.

"Just who is this Captain? Is he such a coward that he has to have a lowly Cooper pick fights with me in his stead?"

The feline turned back around, a snarl pulling back his lips to show off his sharp teeth. "I'll have your head mounted on a pole, you flea-bitten rat!" He fumbled with the same set of keys that Ravengrail had earlier at his waist, ready to unlock the cell door and get at Jim to tear his throat out.

Jim lifted his fists, ready to fight the enraged cat, seeing as he was already in a foul mood and wanted to hurt anyone he could get his hands on.

"Ganttus!" A yell down the corridor called out.

Both of them in the brig turned their attention to the corridor as a procession of pirates made it around the bend towards them. From what Jim could see, Targon was among them.

"What did I tell you about picking fights with our prisoners?" Targon yelled at the feline.

"He's got a real smart mouth on him, this kid. He deserves a good lashing!"

"No harming the prisoner until we know what the Captain wants out of him!"

"Yes, sir!" Ganttus saluted.

Targon turned his attention to Jim. "As for you, lad, you'll get the fortune of meeting with our Captain. He requests your presence to see if he could _persuade_ you into joining our ranks." He gave a gnarled smile full of malice.

Ganttus undid the lock of the cell door and two other pirates pulled Jim out by his wrists, each holding a blaster to his back. One was a younger salamander than the one that had helped capture him and the other was a one-eyed squid-like creature.

The procession led Jim upstairs and to a unfathomable fate.

~/~/~/~/~/

The door to the Cabin came into view a couple of minutes later. Targon entered first, addressing the occupant inside. "Captain, we have brought the prisoner to you, as per your request."

"Thank you, Targon. Bring him in."

Something about that voice struck a familiar chord within Jim, sending shivers down his spine.

The two pirates led him inside, with an excited Ganttus not stepping past the threshold. Just before the door closed behind him, Jim looked back as Ganttus pulled on the sleeve of his shirt. The feline drew a line across his neck with a sharp nail, making a dark joke out of the scenario.

Jim began to sweat, thinking that Ganttus' words probably had weight to them after all.

~/~/~/~/

The brunette was brought before an oak table that was strewn with maps and charts of various information.

Behind the table, Jim caught sight of a silhouette standing in front of a large window, his back facing him. The human Captain of the ship had shaggy, brunette hair that reached a little past his ears and wore a worn canvas doublet, a clean linen shirt, breeches, and polished boots. A leather sash held his gun holster and his cutlass around his waist.

"Welcome to my ship, _prisoner_. As I'm sure you know, you have either two choices before I have dear Targon there throw you over the side and into the Etherium."

His voice was startlingly familiar. It made Jim sweat...

The silhouette turned around to face him. In the light of the electric lanterns set around the Cabin, Jim saw his face, and fell to his knees...

Green eyes widened at the sight of the brunette on the floor.

The pirate Captain of The Compass Blade was none other than Dimitri Sudayev.

~/~/~/~/~/

_A/N: And scene! What a twist! Tell me what you think so far! R&R as always..._


	5. Ice Cold Captain

Antidote-

Paired Couple: Jim HawkinsXDimitri Sudayev/SLASH!/Lemon

_A/N: If you don't like what's in here, go to the left of this web page with your mouse until it hovers over an arrow pointing backwards, and then click it. Treasure Planet belongs to Disney. Anastasia belongs to Fox Animation._

"...Dimitri?"

Dimitri gasped inwardly from having to hear his name pass through those loving lips that he had longed to kiss. It was Jim Hawkins that kneeled on the floor, in his complete mercy.

"You know this scum, Captain?" Targon asked incredulously, looking from one human to another.

The question brought Dimitri out of his reverie. The tri-cornered leather hat in his hands shook as he held it. He didn't know how to respond. He looked down into Jim's warm, brown eyes, at a loss. If he, the Captain of The Compass Blade, were to confess that this "scum" was once his lover, he would probably start mutiny among his crew. There would be no way that they'd accept their beloved Captain was prone to a weak emotion such as love.

Taking a deep breath to steady himself, Captain Sudayev drew a scowl across his features, and stared into Jim's pleading eyes.

"No." He replied, as cold and emotionless as he could. "I don't."

"NO!" Jim leaped up from the floor in shock and denial, as the young salamander took hold of him. "Dimitri! It's me, Jim! You have to remember me!"

Dimitri turned his back to him. "Have the prisoner swab below-decks until I can find some more use for him, Targon." A dead-pan voice.

"Aye, Captain."

Dimitri could hear the brunette struggling in the salamander's arms. "Please! Dimitri! Don't do this, please!"

After a moment of struggling, all but the one-eyed squid creature remained in the cabin with the Captain. The pirates could still hear the shouts fading from outside the door.

Finally, the one-eyed squid spoke. "Are you sure you don't know him, Captain?"

"You questioning me, Skihoth?"

"Uh... No, sir." Skihoth gulped audibly.

"Good. Now get back to your post."

"Aye, sir."

~/~/~/~/~/

Jim pushed the mop around the floorboards in the galley, wincing from the salamander poking his shoulder wound with the flat side of his blade whenever he faltered at his chore. The brunette went through tumults of emotions; the most prominent of those was an unusual mix of confusion, joy, and betrayal.

Dimitri was alive. Alive! He couldn't believe that he had escaped the destruction of Tyranisernum. But with that knowledge at hand, Jim kept wondering if maybe Dimitri had been taken hostage to begin with. If so, though, why would this pirate band make him the Captain? The confusion of it all lead Jim to another scenario...

Perhaps Dimitri had been a pirate all along? As far-fetched as that thought was, he still felt betrayed and broken for Dimitri's lack of compassion and recognition. Did he really forget him after a short three years?

A prod to the very tender spot on his shoulder brought him out of his reverie. Hissing in pain, he moved to another side of the galley with the mop, while the salamander kept a close watch on him.

A few sets of footsteps made their way down the galley stairs. One belonged to the feline, Ganttus, while the others consisted of two humans and a blob... of sorts.

One of the humans had to be almost seven feet tall, with a pale complexion and a crooked nose that pointed slightly to the right, suggesting that he had been in a few fights. His jaw was square, flecked with red stubble all the way up to his sideburns. He wore a leather vest over a thin frame of shoulders and dark breeches that were frayed along the knees and hems. His long, red hair reached his waist and was pulled back by a black bandana. His eyes were the color of swamp green. The human wasn't exactly the brightest looking, but he seemed to give off a vibe of someone who enjoyed giving pain. All brawn and no brains.

The other human was a standard sized young man. He had short, midnight black hair, tanned skin, and inhuman sky blue eyes. The human wore a linen shirt and breeches, complete with heavy boots. A sword hung from his waist. Even his stance suggested that he was a recent recruite, as he stood there, fidgeting and looking around with interest.

Jim couldn't pin point exactly what the blob creature was, or whether it spoke a recognizable language. The blob stood four feet tall and three feet in diameter, was clear in coloring, and had a set of eyes that resembled dark green marbles randomly floating around in it's constantly shifting mass. The blob just slithered down the steps after the three.

"So, we sees you're still baby sitting the prisoner here, Alduin," Ganttus remarked, giving a mischievous grin. "Pray tell, 'cause Laremy over here wants to know," he indicated by pointing out the red head of the group, "has the Captain just decided to make you that boys' wean-mother, or has he decided that you being a lowly gunner was too good a job for the likes of you?" Ganttus laughed jovially with the others, the blob-like creature hissing in replacement of laughing.

The prisoner could tell that Alduin was bristling with seething rage. The salamander drew a sword.

...Jim did not like where this was heading.

_A/N: Why Dimitri, WHY? That's for me to know and for you to find out... in the next exciting chapter!_


	6. Reunion

Antidote-

Paired Couple: Jim HawkinsXDimitri Sudayev/SLASH!/Lemon

_A/N: If you don't like what's in here, go to the left of this web page with your mouse until it hovers over an arrow pointing backwards, and then click it. Treasure Planet belongs to Disney. Anastasia belongs to Fox Animation._

Alduin slashed ahead with his sword, trying to gut his adversary with one clean swipe. Ganttus easily side-stepped the attack, smirking all the while as he drew his sword. Jim could only tell that the feline had hoped for a fight. He had the feeling from the beginning that the cat was a little psychotic. Ganttus charged in, hacking away as he cackled like a maniac, almost slicing the blob-like creature in half in his frenzied attack. Jim backed away from the confrontation.

Maybe "a little psychotic" was putting it lightly.

The other three pirates pulled weapons of their own, thinking of joining in the frenzy. The blob conjured the knife from a belt around its waist, clicking in a dialect that Jim assumed was some kind of insult, as Alduin turned a mottled shade of red after he had deflected Ganttus's weapon away with the hilt of his hand and a half blade.

"I'll get you for that, Melkai!" The salamander yelled at the blob, starting to chase in the direction of it. "Never, in your life, insult my mother!"

As Jim stood there, unable to look away from the crazy scene, it seemed the two humans decided to take it upon themselves to invite him into the fray with the points of their swords swinging at his face. Jim jumped to the side, dropping the mop from his hands in the process, and slid along the slick floor about eight feet away from them. The red head, Laremy, lifted his claymore in both of his hands and brought it down in front of him, cleaving the table in half that Jim had stood behind only seconds before. The dark haired pirate circled around the ruined table and jumped atop another, pursuing the prisoner with his sword clenched tightly in both hands, looking as if he had never wielded one before.

Alduin panted heavily, a gash on his upper left arm oozing blood on the newly mopped floor below. Melkai held its bloody knife high, as if in triumph, as Ganttus closed in on the salamander with obvious delight.

"You know, Alduin... I never did like you. And now, no one will know of your demise. You are just a _lowly gunner_ after all..." he chuckled darkly, his sharp teeth flashing in the light of the electric lamps all about the galley.

Jim sprinted as fast as he could out of the galley, speeding down the row of tables and towards the stairs. He had no choice. It was either this, or die. As he hit the first step up the stairs, an idea formed in his mind. As he made it to the top of the steps, the pirates close at his heels, the brunette yelled as loud as he could,

"FIGHT IN THE GALLEY! THERE'S A FIGHT IN THE GALLEY! LAST MAN STANDING WINS TREASURE! TEST YOUR STRENGTH!"

Suddenly, he found himself pushing against a tide as the rest of the crew pushed and shoved their way into the galley. Grinning at his success, Jim managed to wrestle himself from the sweating tangle of bodies, racing toward the Cabin. As he did so, he passed Targon and Ravengrail, whom were running towards the commotion at the galley, presumably to get all of the men in line and back to work.

Looking over a shoulder as he stood at the Cabin door, he noticed that the humans that had been chasing him were catching up to him. He pulled the handle, sidled inside, and locked the door behind him. He collapsed his forehead against the door, thankful that he escaped.

He stiffened when he heard an audible sigh from the room behind him.

"You always manage to cause trouble, don't you, Jim?"

Jim turned around to face Dimitri, whom had his hands in his pockets, leaning against a wall in shadow. Like before, he wore his linen shirt and breeches, with the canvas doublet, but the tri-cornered hat sat atop his head this time, giving him a more regal appearance. The half-smile and tender expression in his eyes made Jim's heart pound... However...

The twenty-one year old reached out and grabbed a sword from the surface of the small table next to the door and held it high between them.

The Russian softly laughed. "Now why are you doing such an unnecessary thing as that?"

Jim licked his dry lips, sweat coating his palms as he tried to steady the sword from shaking in his hands. "I can't trust you." He stated simply.

At that moment, the two pirates that had been chasing him were pounding on the door.

"Captain! Captain! Are you alright? We saw the prisoner run in there!" Called out one of them through the door.

Dimitri called back. "It's alright, lads! I am taking care of the situation! Go back to your posts! I'll take it from here!"

"Are you sure, Cap'n?" Called out the other in concern. "We could-"

"Are you disobeying my orders, Mister Laremy?" The Captain snapped, folding his arms in impatience.

"...No sir."

"Get back to your posts before I have you strung up from stem to stern. Is that clear?"

"Aye, sir." And with a shuffle of boots outside of the door, the two pirates had left.

A few minutes of silence ensued afterward, Jim never keeping his eyes off of the shadow that was Dimitri, yet listening in the direction of the threshold to make certain that the two pirates had indeed left. Dimitri stood up from the wall suddenly and paced towards Jim. He quirked an eyebrow in curiosity, never having broke his eye contact or smile.

"Why is it that you don't trust me?"

"You're a pirate, and you had me captured. You made me into a prisoner!" He accused. "I thought that was quite obvious."

"Huh... I can see how that works." Dimitri nodded, agreeing.

"...What happened, Dimitri? How in the Etherium did you become a pirate captain? Why are you doing this?"

The Captain dropped the facade, sobering his expression into a grave look. "If you want me to answer those questions, I would prefer if you dropped the sword. I don't much take to my once-lover holding a blade against me."

Jim shook his head, tightening his grip, as his eyes narrowed dangerously.

"And what? Have your goons take me back down to the brig? Fat chance. No, you'll answer my questions. I think I deserve to know."

Dimitri sighed, taking a couple more steps toward him until they stood seven feet away from each other. "You won't like what I have to say, James."

"Probably not, but I have to hear it."

"...Remember when we had last been together? You had just walked me to the ship that was to take me to Tyranisernum..."

~/~/~/~/~/~/

"_I love you, Dimitri..." Jim said, hugging him as hard as he could._

"_I love you, James..." Dimitri whispered back._

"_Just promise me..." Jim began to say, his voice slightly cracking. "...that if you ever... have the chance to visit Montressor... that you'll..."_

"_The Benbow will be my first stop. I promise." He smiled._

_They shared a final kiss, feeling as if that one moment was a lifetime. It was heart-breaking. Neither of them could let go, but they knew their time together was coming to an end._

"_James," Dimitri finally said as they parted lips. "I want you to have something." _

_He reached inside his coat and pulled out a laminated card from a pocket and handed it to him. Jim took it and read the small card._

_**James Pleiades Hawkins**_

_**Official Solar Surfer License**_

_**#81D1M17R133LK623-0P89-347**_

"_Dimitri... I-"_

"_Don't worry about it." Dimitri grinned. "I just want you to be happy."_

"_I don't know what to say..." Jim suddenly became red and looked down at his feet. "I just wish there was something I could give you."_

_Dimitri lifted his head up to look at him. "You don't have to give me anything. Being with you was the greatest gift I could have ever been given. I will always have you in my heart. That's all I'll ever need."_

_From there, Dimitri had tentatively gotten on board, settling into his room at the aft of the ship belowdecks moments later. He looked out the window as he saw the ship launch into the Etherium. From his viewpoint, he could see Jim watching the ship take off. He knew that Jim felt as lonely as he did then._

_As Montressor became less than a speck in the Etherium, Dimitri settled on his bed and began to nod off to sleep._

_~/~/~/~/~/_

_Shouts roused him from his slumber. Dimitri jumped from his bed and headed towards the stairs at the end of the hallway, wondering what was causing the panic up above. Looking out a window before heading up the stairs showed him that the ship was off in a remote area of the galaxy._

_He hit the deck above, watching as passengers ran in several directions, screaming and ducking for their lives, as many rogues boarded the vessel and fired their blasters or went charging after people with their swords held aloft. Among the band of them was a tall, spider-like creature that grinned smugly amongst the chaos behind his mandibles. In his claw he held a sword and he wore a tri-cornered hat upon his head. His exo-skeleton was a light blue and he had a mean set of yellow eyes that roamed over the cowering passengers and crew. _

"_Take their money and jewels, lads! Leave none alive!" He yelled triumphantly in a raspy voice._

_Dimitri ducked behind a barrel, thinking. If there was a possible way he could get a hold of a sword or blaster, he might have a chance._

_When a pirate ran past the barrel he hid behind, the brunette stuck out his leg and tripped the human. With quick reflexes, he snatched up the sword that the pirate had dropped and stabbed through his back, instantly killing him before he could get up. Dimitri then ran off in pursuit of a frog pirate that was chasing after a female felinoid and her child._

_When it had felt like an hour of fighting, Dimitri found himself successfully cornered by half the pirate band. The ship was on fire in several places and many passengers were slain, along with the few pirates that Dimitri had managed to dispatch. He was really in a rough spot. He had dropped his sword overboard and his right arm was dislocated in several places. The Captain made his way over to the procession, chuckling heartily. _

"_So... you're the one that's been giving the lot of us trouble. It's too bad that you've no place to go now... and it would be a shame to put you to death with that fighting prowess you have."_

"_Why have you attacked this ship?" Dimitri dared asked aloud. "We have done no harm to you or your men. We have only meant to make our way to Tyranisernum, nothing more."_

_The Captain laughed again. "We saw this ship as an investment opportunity, human. We loot as we please!" His crew members cheered in approval. "We of the Compass Blade make our own rules and to the depths to those that think otherwise!"_

_Dimitri glared at him, saying nothing._

"_I be Captain Augustus and you, human, shall be our prisoner. We could use a fighter like you in our crew and I'm most fairly certain that once you spend some time in the brig, you'll make the right decision and take up our oath... Boys!" Augustus called to a couple of his men. "Take him to the brig!"_

_Dimitri fought as they grabbed him and led him to the pirate vessel off the starboard side of the destroyed passenger ship._

_~/~/~/~/_

"...And it was about four months afterward that I finally submitted. Captain Augustus made me take the oath and slashed open my hand and let my blood drip to the deck of the Compass Blade." He held out his palm, a thin white scar crossing from the root of his thumb to his pinky. "I couldn't take the torturing that they put me through anymore. They branded me with hot irons and flogged me." Dimitri shook his head. "I was resilient for a good while, trying to find ways to escape. But I was punished for it.

"When I finally gave up trying to leave, they treated me like one of their own. I was sent on scouting missions and taught how to properly wield various weapons, as well as read charts and coordinate our next moves throughout the Etherium.

"About eight or nine months ago, we had stopped over by a planet farther into the galaxy under different colors, so that no one would suspect who we were. We had even fitted a board over the ship's name with a different one. We took precautions to ensure that we wouldn't be found out. By this time, I had been made Captain Augustus' First Mate. But when we had docked and made our way to the first tavern, someone had recognized one of us and, during the cross-fire, Captain Augustus had died. That's where I had taken up the mantle as Captain."

_A/N: So! This makes for an interesting and action packed chapter, no? :P R&R and as always, look out for more interesting things to come!_


	7. The Bite of A Leather Whip

Antidote-

Paired Couple: Jim HawkinsXDimitri Sudayev/SLASH!/Lemon

_A/N: If you don't like what's in here, go to the left of this web page with your mouse until it hovers over an arrow pointing backwards, and then click it. Treasure Planet belongs to Disney. Anastasia belongs to Fox Animation. Happy Holidays to you all! Here's for another exciting segment! Something none of you will expect is about to come around..._

"Captain! Captain!" The door to the Cabin burst open as Targon ran through the threshold, Ravengrail following after him. "Ganttus is getting out of hand again! He attacked Alduin!"

The two stopped when they saw Dimitri and Jim facing each other, with Jim holding onto a sword. Targon rushed him, knocking the wind from Jim's lungs as soon as his stomach hit the floor. Dimitri immediately wrapped his arms around Targon's shoulders, pulling him off of the brunette. Jim got up, coughing for a few moments before regaining his composure.

"What was that for, Targon?" Dimitri yelled at his second-in-command.

"The prisoner had a sword. Are you alright, Captain?"

"I have the situation handled."

Ravengrail spoke up. "What would you have us do with the prisoner, Captain? Is he to go back to the brig for escaping?"

Jim looked over at Dimitri, his heart pounding hard. Dimitri gave him a look of regret, sadness flooding his eyes, just before he hid it under a face of superiority and indifference.

"Yes. Lock him up, until he resigns himself over to the crew."

Targon looked over at Ravengrail for a moment, before giving their beloved captain an inquiring stare. "Is that all, Sir?"

The Captain looked down at the floor for a moment, before looking back up with a cold determination. "In the meantime, give him fifty lashes." Green eyes met chestnut brown. "Maybe next time he'll learn not to defy us."

Just as a stunned Jim was led away from the Cabin by Ravengrail, he caught a glimpse of Dimitri turning his back from him, speaking in a regal manner to Targon, who had remained by his side, "Have Alduin attended to for his injuries by Groven. Ganttus should report to me immediately..."

"Aye, Sir."

~/~/~/~/~/~/

Jim bit into the hard leather, his lungs screaming as a fresh cut opened up on his back. Five more to go. The overlapping lacerations stung as they were exposed to the air. Jim wished he could run, hide, do something. Anything to stop the man from using the whip on his back.

He had cringed every time he heard the whip slice through the air to bite his flesh. Ravengrail had given Jim a piece of hardened leather before the lashings had started, to prevent him from biting through his lips and to somewhat make the pain easier to bear. At first, Jim had been humiliated and had struggled a bit when Ravengrail had dragged him to the mainmast and tied his wrists above his head. With a quick cut of a knife down the back of his shirt, Ravengrail had begun the proceedings.

Sweat poured down Jim's brow as he shook where he stood, the mainmast the only thing to look at. But he wouldn't beg for him to stop. His pride would outlast the final cut of the whip. And all he could think of was how Dimitri didn't look him in the eye as he ordered his crew member to flog him. As if he were unable to apologize, or take back his orders. Why couldn't he just save him from this torment? He was the captain, after all. Dimitri could have easily just ordered his men, without question, to leave Jim alone. Accept him into the crew, if need be.

He hadn't been prepared for this. The lashings were a constant reminder that, perhaps, Dimitri might have dismissed their past. That the old Dimitri was lost forever to the harsh months of captivity, induction into piracy, and being a ruthless, cutthroat captain. Whatever feelings he might still have for Jim wouldn't easily sway him into leniency, much less mercy, if he had any feelings left.

Another slap across his shoulder blades brought him back to the present. It all felt like it was going in slow motion; he couldn't take it for much longer. His breath became labored. How much more could he take before he collapsed into unconsciousness?

Moments later, the flogging had ended. Gasping with relief, Jim tried hard to stay alert so that he wouldn't pass out on the deck. Ravengrail replaced the whip to his belt and untied Jim's wrists. Jim spat out the hard leather from his mouth, his jaw cramping. He half-marched, half-carried Jim towards the stairs down into the brig. Jim's mind felt fuzzy as everything before his eyes began to swim.

_A bed sounds nice right now... _He mused, a little delusional.

Suddenly, several crew members ran in the direction of the starboard side of the ship, calling out to each other in whoops and shouts. Something had their blood pumping.

Targon charged through the crowd, yelling over the din, "What's all the commotion about, then?"

"We have ourselves an intruder, Sir!" One of the crew members called to the First Mate.

Among the crowd, pushing and shoving, Jim could hear the intruder protest with incredulity. "Do you have any idea who I am? I am Doctor Delbert Doppler of Montressor University, I'll have you know! Now unhand me!"

Seeing the familiar dog-faced astrophysicist, Jim called out to him in disbelief. "Doc?"

"Jim? Jim! I was looking for you! I was going to-"

The rest of his explanation was cut off when Delbert was shepherded to the brig by two crew members.

"Take him to the brig, mates!" The crustacean ordered.

Ravengrail took Jim by the collar of his torn shirt and lead him down after the new prisoner. Minutes later, both of them were locked securely in separate cells and left alone with the flickering electric lamp. Jim sat on his ankles, looking down at the floor between his feet. He couldn't lean against the wall, with his back tender and swollen from the lashes. Blood still laced down his back in small ribbons.

Despite his desire to pass out, Jim stayed awake. "So how did you find me, Doc?"

"I knew you would have left the Inn, Jim." Doppler replied. "When Sarah said for you to stay home, I had a feeling you'd do anything to get to Tyranisernum. You're not that hard to figure out. So I stayed at the Inn that night and planned on stopping you. But I had dozed off, figuring you would have tried going earlier. It was my mistake that I let you get an hour's head start." He shook his head. "Despite my tardiness, I took a cruiser and followed the general direction you took. It was my luck that I finally stumbled upon you only a couple of miles ahead of me later on. But when those brutes captured you, I fell back and hid. When they were taking you to the ship, I followed and hid around the ship, hoping to figure out a way to rescue you."

"How'd you get captured then?"

"Well, on another of their scouting expeditions, one of the pirates spotted me around the aft... can't say it was a brilliant plan to pretend that I was the ship's repairman." He finished with a sarcastic inflection, sighing.

"Didn't bring a weapon with you either, huh?"

Doppler only gave him a look.

Jim looked back down. "I see."

"Have you asked about any prisoners they might have captured from Tyranisernum?"

"We're the only two in here, Doc. Does it look like they have?"

"Oh..." Delbert's ears drooped in understanding. "So I suppose that you haven't been able to find Sudayev."

Jim sighed, unsure of what to say in that moment; he didn't have the heart to tell Delbert the truth. Doppler took the silence as defeat.

"I know you tried everything you could for him, Jim. I'm sure that he knows that and, wherever he is, he still loves you."

"I know."

After a few hours of silence, steps pounded down the stairs toward the brig. Both occupants of the cells looked up in interest. Targon walked up to Jim's cell, took out a key, and started undoing the lock while Ravengrail stood by.

Behind them, Dimitri stepped from the shadows, his hat casting his face in gray as it blocked the light from the electric lamp. Jim looked over at Doppler, who had immediately stood from his seat on the floor and called out to him.

"Dr. Sudayev? Is that really you?"

Dimitri cast a surprised look over at the astrophysicist, having not noticed him before. Despite the unexpected reunion, he said nothing, and trained his demeanor back into the cunning look of a captain.

"It is you! Thank goodness you're here! We were so worried that these brutish pirates killed you! How did they capture you and why are you dressed like-"

"Shut up, scum!" Dimitri snapped. "You're an intruder and I won't have my prisoners talk to me in such a manner, lest you want me to cut out your tongue!"

Delbert's jaw dropped as he sank to his knees in disbelief. He could only look over at Jim, shocked and accusing in his direction.

"I am the captain of this ship and I won't tolerate simple-headed blathering from a low-life such as you!"

"_You knew?"_ Doppler mouthed silently to Jim.

Before Jim could reply, his cell door was wrenched open. "Take him to my personal chambers." Dimitri ordered Ravengrail. "I have something I want to discuss with this one."

"Aye, sir."

~/~/~/~/

Moments later, Jim stood in a stately room of the ship. Unlike the berthing deck, this chamber held a four poster bed with sheer white curtains hanging around the mattress. Silk sheets and pillows adorned the bed, which seemed to call to Jim's aching back. Just by looking at it, he wished to lie upon it and forget the events of this day. A desk stood right beside the door, complete with a wooden chair and maps strewn upon the surface. A sword rested against one of the table legs. At the back of the room, a sprawling window from one side of the rounded end of the room to the other gave a fantastic view of the Etherium beyond. A closed door off to the left seemed to lead to an adjoining bathroom.

However, the scowl of the captain in front of him drew Jim away from appreciating the ornate surroundings.

"Will you need anything else, Captain?" Targon asked, Ravengrail standing beside him.

"No thank you, Targon. You may leave us. I wish to speak to the prisoner alone."

Ravengrail looked between Jim and Dimitri with curiosity as Targon lead Ravengrail and himself out of the room. "As you wish, sir." Targon bowed on his way out.

When the door closed, Dimitri's expression did not change. His jaw clenched and unclenched in irritation. "You had to bring him with you, Jim?"

The unexpected question caught Jim off guard. "What? No! I didn't bring him with me!"

"Then why is he here? Are you _trying_ to get him killed?"

_A/N: So! Another day, another chapter! Sorry this one took so long. The holidays have been killing me with trying to get on the computer and updating. So... What will happen next? R&R and stay tuned as always!_


	8. Surgery and Unspoken Feelings

Antidote-

Paired Couple: Jim HawkinsXDimitri Sudayev/SLASH!/Lemon

_A/N: If you don't like what's in here, too f*cking bad! Treasure Planet belongs to Disney. Anastasia belongs to Fox Animation. Huzzah! BAM! Surprise... :D _

Jim was taken aback by the accusation. "Of course not! Doppler followed me here!"

"Then you might as well have dragged him here yourself!" Dimitri snapped, getting into Jim's face. "If it was just you, that would have been okay! You can handle yourself around this crew, but Dr. Doppler..." He shook his head.

"So what's the deal, _Captain_? Are you going to flog Doc next?"

"That's not my intention. I'll have him as the astrophysicist for the crew, so he can chart our courses throughout the galaxy. He won't be defiant, so there's no need to harm him."

"Oh! I see. And you couldn't spare me that-oww!" In his anger, Jim took a step and lurched forward in pain, his back feeling as if someone were taking the whip to it again. It was a searing agony.

Dimitri caught Jim in his arms before he fell to the floor. He sat him up on the four poster bed to prevent a fall.

The captain walked toward the closed door of his room and called through it, "Targon! Bring Groven to my quarters."

A muffled, "Aye, Captain" was heard on the other side of the door.

Dimitri turned around to face Jim. "You had disrespected my first mate. Your defiance cost you, James. I would have lost the trust and loyalty of my men if I had let you go unpunished for it. And seeing as you're a prisoner, I could not let that happen, nor let them see any possible history between us. They would mutiny..."

Jim tried hard to concentrate, given that the pain in his back was hard to bear. He struggled to remain conscious. Frowning, Jim shouted between labored pants, "So that's it then? I'm nothing to you?"

Dimitri rushed to stand before his once-lover, jaw set and nostrils flaring. "No! You are much more to me than you realize! Deep down, you know that I speak the truth."

Just then, a knock sounded at the door. Dimitri opened it to a creature that resembled a human-sized snake with arms. The tail trailed along the floor at four feet while the torso was fully supported upright at three feet of body. Jim had never seen the likes of this particular species, but he had read up on them. The species was Serpentis-ille.

Suddenly, Dimitri walked back, grabbed Jim, and threw him up against the wall with a hand around his neck.

"And, if you _ever_ defy me, Mr. Hawkins, I will kill you myself. You decide: die where you stand, or join our ranks and swear your loyalty to me." Dimitri threatened.

Despite being half-choked, Jim glared into his eyes. Dimitri lifted an eyebrow in question. "Well?"

"Aye, _Captain Sudayev_. I'll join your crew." Jim mustered with a biting edge of sarcasm.

The smallest of smiles. "Good."

Dimitri let go of his neck, letting him gently slide down the wall and onto his feet. Jim went back to sitting on the bed, angered that he had been threatened for no reason.

The creature held up a small bag full of medical supplies. "What ssseemsss to be the problem here, Captain?"

"Clean up our newest recruit, Mr. Hawkins. We don't want him unable to perform his duties. His induction will begin in an hour."

"Hmmm..." The Serpentis-ille mused, scratching his chin with his claws, "Should be no problem. Ssso long asss he doesssn't ssstrugle during the procedure, he should be fine."

Digging through the burlap bag, Groven pulled out a rag, a roll of worn bandages, a bottle of strong whiskey, a rather large needle, and thread. Setting all these things on the table next to the door, he sauntered over to Jim and placed one scaly hand to his forehead. The cold skin shocked Jim where he sat, and he jumped a couple centimeters away.

"Well, the lad'sss not running a fever, ssso that'sss helpful. Mr. Hawkinsss, I'll need you to lay on your ssstomach."

Jim took off the remains of his torn shirt and threw it on the floor as he laid himself down face-first on the bed. The silk sheets were cool to his skin; the mattress soft. For a second he though he might fall asleep, when he heard Groven uncork the whiskey and poured a liberal amount on his back.

Jim hissed in pain, wincing.

Dimitri stood there, always the professional captain of his ship. But internally, he was struggling not to cry out and hold onto Jim's hand. It pained him to watch Jim in such agony, an agony that he had caused. But there was nothing he could do about it now; he had the deed carried out. All he could do for the moment was watch his once beloved grimace in torment from the wounds and do nothing else. He knew what it was like to have this procedure done. He had been lashed to that same mast countless times for disobeying orders and the like while under Captain Augustus' reign.

And the healing done by Groven himself had always been the same experience as enduring the whip.  
>He could empathize with the youth lying flat down on his bed.<p>

After Groven wiped the blood and alcohol away with the cloth, he went over and picked up the needle and thread. Looping the thread through the eye of the needle, he tied it off and lowered the sharp, slightly bent point towards Jim's skin.

"Thisss'll hurt lad, brace yourssself."

Before he touched his patient with the needle, a hand caught Groven's.

"No," Dimitri said at last, taking his hand away, "let him drink a little so as to numb the pain. And let him bite into something. We don't want him thrashing about while you work."

"Agreed, Captain."

Jim felt the opening of the bottle touch his lips as he laid there, slightly shaking from the constant stinging of his back. He gulped down the liquor eagerly, feeling dehydrated, then gradually relaxed as he kept swallowing down large mouthfuls. The bottle was then set down next to the bed in easy reaching distance so that he could drink more if the pain proved too much.

Groven handed Jim his own torn shirt to bite into. The brunette put it in his mouth and bit down in anticipation.

The next second, he howled through the cloth as the needle pulled the string through his puckered flesh. The pain was almost as bad as being lashed all over again. He breathed hard through his nostrils, trying not to struggle. His back stiffened under the procedure.

_Why me...?_

~/~/~/~/~/

After the procedure, Groven packed up his medical supplies and left the room with a small salute to his captain.

Jim sat up on the bed, sweat pouring off of his limbs as he shook from exhaustion. He picked up the almost empty bottle and took the last swig, distilling the pain he felt from his stitches. There had been many, but it only took one skilled such as Groven to fix up in only fifty minutes.

Dimitri inspected his back from the other side of the bed, cringing slightly at the now pink bandages that had absorbed the alcohol and blood from Jim's stitches. Clearing his throat, he walked around the bed to face Jim.

"Are you feeling better?"

Jim shook his head.

Dimitri walked over to the small chest at the foot of the bed and opened it. He pulled out a clean shirt and threw it into Jim's lap. "Well, hopefully you will be soon, because your induction begins in less than ten minutes. I want you able-bodied so that you can attend the ceremony and be up to doing your tasks after everything is said and done."

Jim grunted, pulled on the shirt, and hobbled toward the door. With his hand on the knob, he didn't anticipate the plead that came at his back.

"James... Wait."

Sighing, he turned around. "Yes, Cap-"

Dimitri had made his way over and cornered Jim. With a deep look into his chestnut eyes, he gently pushed Jim against the door and kissed him fiercely. Several months had passed since they had last shared a passionate moment, and Jim could feel the hunger and need that Dimitri had kept inside for all that time.

Jim wove his fingers into his hair, not wanting to let go. For a moment, he had forgotten the pain and the indifference that he had suffered at the hands of Dimitri. He pretended for a while that he wasn't aboard a pirate vessel, that he hadn't been flogged into submission, and that he wasn't millions of miles away from home. He was back on Montressor, with Dimitri, sharing another wonderful moment with him.

The moment was shattered when a knock sounded at the door.

"Cap'n, we await your arrival for the induction!"

Dimitri broke the kiss, breathing hard for a moment with his forehead pressed to Jim's. Steadying his voice, he replied, "Thank you, Targon. I'll be there shortly."

With both hearts beating furiously, they looked into each others' eyes. With a last, small kiss on his lips, Dimitri pulled away from Jim and straightened his coat. Gone was the passion, to be replaced with calculation, cunning, and detachment.

"Well, let's get this over with." The Captain said in a bored manner.

Opening the door, they stepped out onto the deck of _The Compass Blade_.

_A/N: Yep. Surgery can be such a nasty procedure... Poor Jim. I'm so mean to him. Oh well, at least he got some compensation out of it, right? ;P R&R as always! Next chapter will include another surprise! :D_


	9. Sweet As Sin, Bad As The Serpent

Antidote-

Paired Couple: Jim HawkinsXDimitri Sudayev/SLASH!/Lemon

_A/N: If you don't like what's in here, too f*cking bad! Treasure Planet belongs to Disney. Anastasia belongs to Fox Animation. Huzzah! BAM! Surprise again!_

Jim looked into the sky, shielding his eyes from the downpour of sunlight. Standing at the wheel of the ship, the entire crew had assembled to witness the new recruits pledge their allegiance to Captain Sudayev. Dimitri held his blade comfortably in his grip, Targon and Ravengrail standing by as protocol dictated. Delbert looked about nervously, unsure of what was to happen next, although Dimitri had told him of the induction earlier on.

"Hawkins," Dimitri began, loud enough for the entirety of the crowd to hear, "do you pledge your undying loyalty, trust, and sword to me, Captain Sudayev, as well as to _The Compass Blade_? As well, do you swear to serve me, Captain Sudayev, unquestioningly and without falter, so long as there is air in your lungs, and-upon pain of death-do you swear to keep this allegiance until your dying day?"

Jim focused his vision onto Dimitri, filled with uncertain emotions. Although he had a feeling that Dimitri hadn't dismissed their mutual affection for each other, the initiation into the crew was a high-risk gamble. Could he really drop everything he had worked for back on Montressor-branding himself in with pirates; becoming a fugitive and an outlaw-just to be reunited with Dimitri? He didn't know how to answer that question. Even then, it wasn't guaranteed that they could continue loving each other like they used to three years prior. Dimitri had changed, that was for certain.

Things had certainly taken an unexpected turn.

"...Aye, Captain."

Dimitri nodded to his First Mate and handed his sword to Targon. The crustacean reached out for Jim's hand and tilted it, palm up. With the captain's blade, Targon settled the steel onto Jim's palm.

"Close your fist over it, Hawkins." Targon instructed him.

Loosely grasping the cold metal, Jim hissed with pain as Targon slid the sword slowly from his hand. Blood seeped from his palm. After Dimitri's sword was returned to its sheath, Targon grabbed Jim's closed fist and and turned it over, palm down.

"Squeeze your fist tight, and then let go. Let your blood drip to the deck."

Doing as he was commanded, Jim stifled groans of pain and let his blood drip to the boards of the ship in front of the wheel. Groven immediately moved forward from the assembled crew members and wrapped a linen strip around Jim's hand to staunch the bleeding.

With a hand on his shoulder, Dimitri plainly stated. "Welcome to the crew, Mr. James Hawkins!"

Cheers erupted and slaps of encouragement and congratulations pounded his tender back, leaving him hunched over. Through the celebration, Jim could make out a small smile creeping up onto the captain's lips.

~/~/~/~/

It was late in the evening, and Jim felt sore and rigid!

After Doppler's induction, they had all been called to duty. Dimitri had ordered the ship to engage thrusters and head in the directional coordinates of the meantime, Targon had ordered Jim and a couple of the others to clean the solar sails, others to swab the decks, and even more to attend to other various chores around the large vessel. Doppler had been taken to oversee the star charts and make the safest and fastest route to Quadrant 219. Even Groven had his duties, and the snake-like creature had headed down to the kitchen to prepare for the evening meal.

As the youth settled down on an empty bench in the crowded galley, his back stiff, Delbert promptly settled down across from him seemingly out of nowhere. In his hands, he held two bowls of stew, pushing one with a spoon sticking out of it towards Jim.

"I figured you'd be hungry." The doctor said absently, trying to start a light conversation. He could see that Jim looked a little pale from all the injuries he had slightly reopened from the labor he had to do today.

"Thanks, Doc." He gave a weak smile.

Jim picked up his spoon and fiddled with the slop in his bowl. It was lumpy, gray and brown, and looked hardly appetizing. The smell didn't help much to appeal to his hunger, either. He pushed the bowl away.

"So you knew all along that he was here?" Delbert piped up at last, breaking the silence.

Jim sighed. "Yea."

"How come you didn't tell me the truth, Jim?"

"...Look, can we pick this up another time? I don't really want to talk about it."

"Okay, suit yourself." Doppler replied, shrugging. "But I would like to know sometime in the near future."

Suddenly, an enraged shout broke throughout the mess hall. The men gathered in the room turned toward the stairs; the source of the commotion. Ganttus stomped his way down the stairs, cursing and spitting profanities.

"-IS FUCKIN' STUPID! MAKIN' ME A FUCKIN' CABIN BOY? I'VE BEEN WIT' THIS CREW FER NEARLY THREE DECADES-"

From what Jim and Doppler could see from their seats as Ganttus turned around, the feline had several bandages binding up his lash marks on his back, which the simple leather vest he wore didn't hide much of.

"What's up with him?" Jim asked, raising an eyebrow.

"Well, seein' as ol' Ganttus here almost killed Alduin-those two never did get along-Ganttus has been given fifty lashes for his crime and was locked in the brig today." Answered Helus, an older crew member that resembled a six foot tall bi-pedaled lizard, that sat at a table next to theirs. "Now, Ganttus is one crazy old feline. Almost in his seventies, but meaner than a spittin' hell hound, that one. Laughed while they gave him a beatin'-more lashes than you received, lad." He said pointedly to Jim. "And Cap'n Sudayev, not convinced that it made an impression on him, took away his scoutin' privileges and made him a cabin boy fer two months, or until he proved himself, which ever came first."

"Well, that's not sitting well with Ganttus, I take it." Doppler said a bit worriedly.

The lizard gave a hacking laugh in response.

The three of them watched the feline pick up an empty chair and smash it into the wall next to the stairs in rage. Heading down the stairs was Targon, scowling momentarily at Ganttus, but saying nothing, as he searched the crowd of pirates in the galley.

"Mr. Hawkins!"

Jim stood from his seat. "Aye, sir?"

"The Captain wishes to see you in the main Cabin."

Doppler gave Jim a look of apprehension; a subtle message to be careful. The brunette nodded knowingly and walked out of the galley with Targon in tow.

~/~/~/~/~/

The first thing that Jim noticed when he stepped into the Cabin was the lack of lighting. Save for one candle that burned low on the table that dominated the room with its all important star charts and maps meticulously stacked in piles, the room was shrouded in gloom. Dimitri was seated in a chair, leaning into it until only the back two legs touched the floor, his feet resting on top of the table to anchor himself from toppling. His hands pillowed the back of his head, at ease, although his emotionless face gave no indication as to whether he was relaxed or not.

"You may leave us, Targon." Dimitri said, still the authoritative figure.

Targon bowed and made his way back out the door, his many feet clicking on the wood.

For a minute, Jim stayed rooted to the spot, confused as to why he was summoned for the umpteenth time today. He couldn't guess what was to happen next. Dimitri had become unpredictable, ran hot and cold with his emotions and intentions.

"You wished to see me, Captain?"

The young brunette became startled when his captain stood up from his seat and walked over to him. In close proximity now, he could tell that Dimitri had abandoned his hat on the floor and his jacket hung on the back of his chair. He looked tired, but not overly exhausted.

"When we're alone, you don't have to call me Captain, _Mr. Hawkins_." Dimitri smiled teasingly, giving him a small shove.

"Ah, I see," Jim grinned in return. "I don't suppose you can stop calling me Hawkins then?"

"We'll have to discuss it..."

Jim leaned in, wrapped his arms around him, and met his lips with his own.

Dimitri quickly pushed them back against the wall, hungrily devouring Jim's hot mouth and savagely rubbing their tongues together in a fiery dance that quickened their blood. Dimitri was drunk off of the lust and passion that became palpable in the air within seconds. He could feel Jim tug on his shirt, his hair, and could feel his own breeches becoming tight.

Jim shivered as icy hands snaked up his shirt and clawed at his shoulders. He nibbled roughly on the captain's lower lip and then sucked on it gently, a good balance between pain and pleasure that withdrew an erotic groan from Dimitri's throat. For good measure, and to catch him off guard, Jim rubbed his hand over a certain bulge, satisfied with the breathless moaning coming from next to his ear.

But the fun had only started.

On a jolting impulse, Dimitri grabbed Jim by the collar of his shirt and pulled him away from the wall, only to back him down on top of the table in the middle of the room, scattering maps and charts in their wake. The candle flickered at the far end of the table, safely undisturbed.

Dimitri threw off his shirt and started undoing his breeches, fumbling with the knots that held it together. Jim did likewise, sliding off his shirt to land on the floor and kicking off his boots. As soon as both men were down to their partially undone breeches and shorts, they resumed ravaging each others' mouths.

Suddenly, Jim gasped, feeling Dimitri's hand touching his sensitive inner thighs. Dimitri laughed softly, enjoying this enticing foreplay.

Before Jim could utter two syllables, he moaned loudly as the man above him gripped his shaft and started pumping. It was an intoxicating sensation!

"Mmmm... I missed this..." Dimitri managed to whisper at last.

Jim flushed, his cheeks turning bright red. "Aaaah... Me too... Dimitri..." He bit back another moan as a tongue flickered over his chest.

"There's just no way I can watch you work all day and _not_ get to do anything to you..." Dimitri said as he came back up for air, which was immediately answered with a muffled affirmation beneath him. Jim couldn't talk, even if he tried.

The Russian tore off the rest of Jim's breeches with impatience and pinned Jim's wrists to the desk. Dimitri nipped and bit at his crew member's neck and chest, resulting in disjointed yelps and moans to intermingle in the stillness of the Cabin. He took a puckered nipple in between his teeth and rolled it under his tongue, causing the loudest moan yet.

Not only did the biting and teasing make Jim quake with eroticism, but hearing those pleads and groans escape his lips did little to extinguish the maddening pulse in Dimitri's organ. Letting go of Jim's wrists, Dimitri finally slid his breeches to the floor and aligned himself up to his lover's entrance, with Jim's legs dangling over his shoulders.

Slowly inching his way inside of him, Jim bit down on his own hand to muffle the lustful screams. Dimitri panted with exertion, locked hilt deep. His heart pounded furiously as his blood raged through his veins like a solar fire racing through the Etherium. Then did the rhythm begin, rocking them into oblivion's sweet embrace.

Jim didn't have to muffle his screams anymore, as the initial pain had passed, to leave a tingling pleasure in its wake. Instead, he reached over his head and gripped the edge of the desk, his knuckles turning white and holding on, as if with his very life.

Approximately thirty minutes later, explosions of light danced behind their eyes, signaling a delicious release that neither of them had experienced since they were last together years prior. And as they spiraled down from the pinnacle of their climaxes, they found that their hands were locked with fingers tightly intertwined.

Gasping for breath a little later on, Dimitri slid away from the table and started dragging on his breeches and linen shirt. Jim laid on the table for a moment, trying to catch his breath, before he landed on his feet and searched for his own garments. As he managed to pull on his shirt, he felt Dimitri hold him from behind. He turned around in his arms, receiving a gentle kiss.

When they exchanged post-coital, tender kisses, a mass of shouting suddenly broke the silence on the other side of the door to the deck of the ship. Loud booms rocked the ship unsteadily, almost throwing the pair off-balance.

Dimitri zoomed to the door, wrenching it open as he threw on his jacket, hat, and sash that contained his sword and pistol.

"CAPTAIN! CAPTAIN!"

Ravengrail was running towards the Cabin, dodging fires, holding onto his badly mangled right arm with his left to staunch the bleeding. "We're under attack!"

Jim finished pulling on his boots and scrambled to the threshold, panic threatening to overwhelm him.

"Who dares to attack us?" Dimitri demanded, back in command from the initial shock.

"It's _The Dark Serpent_, Sir!"

Dimitri blanched, causing Jim to fear for the worst. He had never seen Dimitri that scared before. He strained his ears to catch what Dimitri quietly muttered under his breath, hoping to hear something that would make sense of his apprehension.

"...Sinbad..."

_A/N: WOO! Get a load of that bombshell! R&R as always! ;P Glad to always deliver the most unexpected of surprises! Stay tuned for more!_


	10. A Real IceBreaker

Antidote-

Paired Couple: Jim HawkinsXDimitri Sudayev/SLASH!/Lemon

_A/N: If you don't like what's in here, too f*cking bad! Treasure Planet belongs to Disney. Anastasia belongs to Fox Animation. Sinbad: Legend of the Seven Seas belongs to Dreamworks._

"Everyone to their battle stations! Fire at will! Skihoth! Ganttus! Vernsloop! Ravengrail! Unfurl the solar sails, now!" Dimitri yelled, taking his place up at the wheel and gripping it with determination. Ravengrail ran off, ripping a part of his shirt off with his teeth and binding his injured arm with the scrap of cloth.

Jim followed in the captain's wake. When he was about to ask what was exactly going on, Dimitri turned his attention to him with stern eyes. Gone was the lover he knew, to be suddenly replaced once again by a ruthless pirate.

"Hawkins, unfurl the solar sails with the others!" He commanded.

"...Aye, Captain."

As Jim stumbled down the stairs to join his fellow crewmen in unfurling the sails, Delbert came scrambling across the deck from the galley, pulling out books and papers from a satchel that was slung around his shoulders.

"Do you know what's going on, Jim?" He asked shrilly, pushing his thick glasses up to the bridge of his nose. "Everyone says we're under attack!"

Jim pulled Doppler along with him as he ran towards the main mast. "Yea, they say we're being attacked by another pirate ship!"

"Oh, my dear word! How will we make it out of this alive? We're surely doomed!"

As soon as Jim started clambering up the main mast, the astrophysicist heard Dimitri's call over the din of blaster cannons. "Doppler! To the control stations!"

The brunette made his way up at last and stood as steadily as he could upon the aged wooden beam that ran horizontally from the thick column that made up the main mast. He quickly made his way over to the middle and grabbed onto the rope that swung about in the maddening wind. Clenching it tight in his hands, he looked over to the other side of the main mast and saw Skihoth doing the same thing. Nodding to him, Jim made his way to the end of the beam and looped the rope through the metal ring at the end. Skihoth was just as successful. The main solar sail filled with wind.

Jim ran to the main mast again from the beam and climbed higher to get to the main top-solar sail.

As activity and yells filled the atmosphere of his ship, Dimitri gripped the wheel and gritted his teeth. He knew the captain of _The Dark Serpent _too well. He was cutthroat and dangerous, not caring to take down other pirate vessels or whole fleets of the Interstellar Armada.

Dimitri had never met Sinbad in person, but had come into close contact with his ship a couple of times while under Captain Augustus' reign. All he ever learned about Sinbad and _The Dark Serpent_ came from his former captain and from having to fight from afar. So far, the battles had always ended in stalemate, when the Interstellar Armada or the Galaxy Police had gotten in the way and tried to take down both vessels.

He hadn't seen that ship in a year and a half.

The dark wood of the vessel gave it a foreboding appearance and the bow of the ship held a figurehead in the likeness of a snake made from polished silver. The ship itself must have been at least a few feet bigger than _The Compass Blade_, with more crew members and a few more guns.

The prospects were not in his favor.

Suddenly, he noticed the enemy ship sailing toward his. The intention was not lost to Dimitri.

_The bastard means to board!_

"Alduin! Harvett! Targon! Helus! Troy! Break out the big guns! Be sure to keep the dogs at bay as much as you can!" Dimitri screamed. "Beladox! Get to the fuel injectors and wait for further instruction! Masterson! I want you to take the wheel for a moment and keep us steady!"

Doppler whimpered at the controls behind the captain as a huge blast rocked the ship. He sweated profusely as he looked at the slowly declining bar of fuel. They couldn't take much more damage at this rate. About twenty knots from here-the closest escape from the ship attacking them-that side of the galaxy looked to be riddled with asteroids, backed with a cloud of vaporous spores that could easily tear holes in the hull and solar sails, causing unrepeatable damage as well as numerous, fatal casualties.

Delbert just didn't know what to do! He felt a presence next to him and jumped, nervous.

"What's the damage, Doppler?" Dimitri inquired, looking over the screens and dials.

"Well, Captain, we'll rupture like a super nova at this rate! The damage is staggering our ship's defenses, as well as draining our fuel-AAAAH!"

Another big blast caused the astrophysicist to fall over. Dimitri held onto the control panel, determined to stay upright. He helped the quirky doctor to his feet, revealing that the most damage Delbert took was a big crack in one of his lenses and a few bruises.

"Make sure to go thirty knots West!" Doppler yelled over the din, finally losing whatever calm he may have possessed. "Just make sure to stay away from the South West!"

Back up on the main mast, Jim and Skihoth managed to get the main top-solar sail unfurled and were just sidling down the main mast to the deck, when a cannon blast knocked them down the last few feet to the boards below. Jim shook his head and sat upright, trying to get the ringing from his ears, when he saw the squid-like creature next to him, lying flat on his back, unmoving, and covered in third-degree burns. It seemed that Skihoth had taken the actual hit of the blast full-force.

Jim got back his bearings and heard a call from the helm. "Hawkins! Man the starboard side with the others!"

It seemed like hours, but thirty minutes had rolled by with attacks on either side. Jim kept the shots coming from his blaster with the others. Try as they might, Jim knew that there was no way _The Compass Blade _was going to keep _The Dark Serpent_ from coming. Beladox was still waiting for the energy tanks to fill before they could fully blast their way from this side of the Etherium and outrun the other pirates. In the frenzy, Targon was badly injured, but he refused treatment and kept shooting like a maniac. Ganttus had joined the fight when Troy had fallen to his death in the first ten minutes of Jim joining the fight. Although Jim didn't trust the feline to cover his back, he knew that Ganttus' crazy antics were paying off with his blood-lust rage.

Finally, the tables had turned! As Beladox was able to get the energy tanks fully satiated, he had pulled the lever below-decks as fast as he could. It seemed _The Compass Blade _was going to outrun the other ship after all!

With medium damage and a few casualties, Dimitri felt enormous relief as the sound of cannons became less and less frequent. He knew his limits and knew that there would be many years before him and his crew were able to take down _The Dark Serpent_ once and for all.

Just then, one last, painful blast hit the starboard side of the vessel, rocking the ship madly.

Jim held onto the edge of the ship with his fingers, not daring to let go, as he floated dangerously out in the Etherium. Concentrating hard, Jim fought with effort to pull himself back on deck. Suddenly, and with enormous relief, he felt a furry paw grab onto his wrist.

"I t'ink this'll be the last time you pull a fast one on ol' Ganttus, mate," chuckled Ganttus, giving an evil grin. "So do have yourself a good time on _The Dark Serpent_ fer me, will ya?"

Before he could scream in protest or fight back, Jim was tossed out into the Etherium as he watched _The Compass Blade _take off without him.

~/~/~/~/

Moments later, Jim was picked up and immediately taken hostage by a pirate that had taken a cruiser out into the open after the battle from the other vessel. He couldn't fight back without a weapon, so he resigned to be taken aboard with a sword to his neck.

As they finally docked upon _The Dark Serpent_, Jim was dragged on board by a massive contingent of pirates that hissed, laughed, and threatened him with sword points and guns. All he could hope for was for Dimitri to come back after him.

"Ye've come a long way, boy!" Mocked a middle-aged canid, whose sour breath made Jim's eyes water when the dog-like person pulled him close by the collar of his shirt. "It's only right for me to show ya the sights before ya die!" Sickening laughter and cheering followed this statement.

Jim struggled in the pirate's one-fisted iron grip, trying to break open his hand, as a cold tip of a knife fell softly against his cheek. Jim started to panic.

_I'm going to die..._

"Still your hand, Blain!" Commanded a voice behind the crowd, whom quickly departed.

The canid, Blain, gritted his teeth in anger and dropped Jim to the deck of the ship.

"Why should I?" Argued the ill-tempered crew member. "He's from that traitor's ship! We can't let this runt live!"

Jim peeked around Blain's legs and beheld the captain of the ship. He was taller than Jim by a mere couple of inches, with short brunette hair, cropped beard and mustache, and serious dark eyes. He wore a red bandana wrapped around his forehead, a black and red vest tied off with a red sash, red pants, and thick black boots. Although he seemed older than Jim, and even Dimitri, he had a youthful voice and the energy of someone around in their early twenties. His scimitar was belted into his sash, at ease and confident.

"Remember your place, Blain." The captain warned quietly, even though his atonement could be mistaken for one who had barely a passing interest in the current situation.

The ferocity leached from the crew man's features, leaving him docile. "Oh... uhhh... Of course, Captain."

"Good. Now, if you'll excuse me, I'll confront our prisoner and decide what to do with him."

"Aye, Captain Sinbad."

"Back to your posts, men!" He demanded of the assembled crew.

They scattered to their various tasks like frightened cockroaches. This genuinely concerned Jim. Anyone that could scare their own crew members that badly without so much as giving a voiced threat was one not to be trifled with when on the other side of that alliance.

Sinbad looked down at Jim, who just watched as the crew ran off to do their various chores without so much as a word.

"You." Jim looked up, startled. "Come with me."

~/~/~/~/

Jim found himself in the main Cabin with the enemy captain, Sinbad. All he could think of was plans of escape.

...Each one was more far-fetched than the last. This was not looking good.

"So, I see that you were left behind by your crew." Sinbad mused, amusement quirking the corners of his mouth upward.

Jim remained silent, not letting him get to him. Instead, he glared.

"What?" The captain grinned. "Not going to talk?"

"..."

"Hmmm... I see."

The blow came fast and unexpectedly hard. The youth grunted with pain; fell to the floor. A purple splotch was beginning to blossom underneath his right eye.

"I don't take kindly to anyone that thinks they're going to win out over me just because they don't speak to me." He got up in Jim's face. "Especially from prisoners. Don't make that mistake."

Jim got back up to his feet, keeping a steady glare of loathing on his face aimed at Sinbad. "What do you want with me?" He said through gritted teeth.

"Well, I was thinking of using you as a sort of leverage, personally." The captain said good-naturedly, as if he were talking about a normal day out in the Etherium.

Jim gave him a confused look, rubbing his cheekbone gently. In the past couple of days, he had been beaten, lashed, bruised, and roughed up to hell. Jim wondered when his body would stop being a punching bag for everyone.

"Come now. You are a part of _The Compass Blade_'s crew!" He gave a winning smile. It faltered just as fast. "Or, at least, you were. So you have to know the weaknesses and strengths of the vessel."

"If I don't, then what?" Jim ventured to ask.

Sinbad tsked, shaking his head in dramatized dejection. "Then I have no use for you, plain and simple. And that means that I'd have to kill you, as sad as that is."

"What does it matter to you? I'm your enemy. Even if you felt anything remotely remorseful-though I doubt it-it'd be short-lived anyway."

Jim knew he was taking a gamble by goading the captain, but he knew that he'd be screwed either way, unless Dimitri came back for him this instant.

"The only reason I'd feel any remorse killing a talented young man, that can hold his own during combat such as you, is that you resemble a crew member of mine. Look just like him, actually, now that I think about it; he's just the older version of you, really..."

This meeting with the strange, enemy captain was getting weirder by the second. Goosebumps covered Jim's forearms. His breathing hitched and his blood pumped far too fast through his heart.

"Now what was his name?" The captain quietly mused with himself, genuinely trying to remember.

Jim began to sweat. Was this guy just trying to pull his leg? Freak him out?

It was working.

A second later. "Leland! That's who you remind me of, kid!" Sinbad said triumphantly. "Leland Hawkins!"

_A/N: Didn't expect to hear that out of Sinbad's mouth, did ya? :D R&R like always! Stay tuned to find out Jim's reaction!_


	11. Negotiations

Antidote-

Paired Couple: Jim HawkinsXDimitri Sudayev (Now featuring Sinbad!)/SLASH!/Lemon

_A/N: If you don't like what's in here, you can always find the back button! Treasure Planet belongs to Disney. Anastasia belongs to Fox Animation. Sinbad: Legend of the Seven Seas belongs to Dreamworks._

Jim felt like he was punched in the face again. "Wha-"

"...You're Jim Hawkins, aren't you?" Sinbad asked, perplexed. "He used to talk about you all the time."

Jim couldn't even speak. The last thing he expected when he was dragged aboard was to hear anything about his father. His fear and shock was immediately replaced with anger. All the years of pent up fury started to boil forth, making him almost lose his mind.

Forgetting where he was and who he was talking to, Jim started to yell. "Yea? Well, where's he been all these years?"

Sinbad now became the one that was shocked. The audacity of someone yelling at him caught him off guard. "So you are Jim."

"How do you know my father? Where is he?"

"Hey!" Sinbad retorted. "No one talks to me this way, and lives! Even if you are the son of Leland Hawkins! You will tell me what I want to know, or I'll kill you with my own hands!"

"Where is he?"

The last thing Jim remembered before blacking out was someone bursting through the Cabin and slugging him in the back of the head.

~/~/~/~/

Dimitri looked over his partly wrecked ship, looking for any signs of Jim.

When that last, heavy blast had hit the ship, Dimitri had been thrown to the other side of the vessel and had been rendered unconscious for the remainder of their break-neck run through the Etherium. He had only just awoken in his private quarters ten minutes ago, with a bandage strapped around his head, his left arm in a sling, and a bandage covering up the stitches in his left knee. He had no idea how long he had been knocked out, but his first impulse was to find Jim and see if he was okay.

His crewmen either lugged huge boards of wood from one end to the other to fix the damages, or were busy locating the dead to give them a proper burial later. A small crowd gathered at the entrance to the galley, all of which sported wounds that were easy to mend. Behind the crowd of sailors, Dimitri spotted Groven patching up Laremy's bottom lip, needle flashing in and out of the wound as the red-headed pirate twitched with discomfort.

"Targon!" Dimitri called out.

"Aye, Captain?" The crustacean made his way over to him from a set of stairs up to the wheel, sporting several bruises and limping with a crutch-one of his four legs bandaged off at the knee.

"What happened to you, Targon?"

"Leg blown off, Sir. The _Serpent_'s last shot got me real good."

Thinking for a moment, Dimitri carefully constructed his next question. "And... the fatalities?"

"Troy, Skihoth, Vernsloop, Graz, Oppersmith, Melkai, and Alduin. All slain."

Trying to hide his regret over the losses-and the relief that Jim wasn't among the dead!-Dimitri nodded, taking in the loss while remaining regal as ever.

"Anything else to report?"

"Unfortunately... Ravengrail is on the threshold of death, even as we speak. He won't last much longer, Captain." This bit of news caught the captain off-balance, not expecting the seasoned pirate to perish. He nodded for Targon to continue, trying hard not to break his mask of professionalism.

When Targon didn't, Dimitri looked into those six red eyes. The question went unspoken, but Targon sighed and finished his report. "He was a skilled pirate, although we didn't get to know him too long. And he might have been a pain in the ass, but he was one brave fighter when it came down to it." He pulled out a scrap of white cloth, perhaps from a linen shirt, from his sash. He handed it to Dimitri. "Hawkins is missing, Captain."

~/~/~/~/

Jim woke up many hours later, his head throbbing with migraine, his cheek tender to the touch, and his body cold as he got up from the floor boards of the brig. He found no one in the other cells around him and several lamps lighting the space.

_That's two brigs I've been in... _he mused to himself darkly.

He had no idea what happened to have brought him to where he was now. The last thing he did remember was arguing with the captain of _The Dark Serpent _about his dad. Just the mere memory of the confrontation made him bristle with anger. Somehow, some way, he had to figure out how to escape and find out the truth...

After wrestling with the iron bars of his cell, trying to find a weak spot, for the past two or so hours, Jim had finally resigned to pacing. His migraine hadn't decreased in strength and his agitation hadn't worn off. Those only added to his desperate situation.

What did Captain Sinbad mean when he said that Jim looked just like his crew mate, Leland Hawkins? Did he mean that Leland was still around, probably on this very ship even as he thought about it? What does his father think about him being on board? Does he even know that he is on board? Does he care? Just how long had Leland been a pirate, and why?

Steps pounded down the stairs of the brig, catching Jim's attention. Sinbad walked into the light, with a six-foot tall, muscular man-with dark skin, a soul patch, yellow pants tied off with a blue sash around his waist, both ears pierced with gold hoops, what seemed to be a blue crescent moon tattoo on his left shoulder, and black boots-by his side. Jim could only guess that this was the captain's second-in-command.

Sinbad's first mate produced a set of keys from his sash and undid the lock of Jim's cell. Jim backed up against the wall behind him, unsure of the events that were to take place. Sinbad walked into the cell, his second trailing in after him.

"Sorry I had to have you knocked out there, Jim. You had been giving me quite a headache. It was a good thing Kale here put your lights out or else I probably would have done a lot worse." said Sinbad with a hint of amusement.

Jim could only reply with, "How do you know my father?"

Sinbad sighed. "Tell you what, lad. If you give me what I want, I'll give you what you want." His eyes seemed to grow a shade darker as he glowered at him with frustration.

"What is it that you want?"

"You know what I want: the weaknesses of _The Compass_."

_Dimitri..._

A growl escaped his lips. "...Never."

Sinbad chuckled slightly, smirking over at Kale, who smiled and shook his head in return.

"The Captain doesn't like to play games, boy," Kale began in a rich baritone that spoke of strength and intimidation. "So unless you want to be our little guinea pig for all sorts of pain and suffering, I suggest you cooperate. Think of it this way: at least you'll get something out of telling us what we need to know."

"And just give up Dim-my crew mates? Forget it!"

The first mate looked back over his shoulder at his captain. "Looks like we have a loyal one on our hands, Cap. What do you wish to do with this runt?"

"Hmmm... Since he won't talk... Surprise me! Be creative, Kale! See what makes him loosen his tongue." The harsh, cruel look in his eyes only told promises of excruciating agony. The Captain headed back up the stairs to the main deck, leaving Jim in the midst of the first mate.

"I love being creative..."

As Kale took a swipe at Jim with his fist, Jim ducked under his arm as fast as he could manage and ran out of the cell. The first mate followed in hot pursuit. The brunette raced up the stairs and onto the main deck, looking for any means of escape from the madman chasing him. When the hard working crew noticed the prisoner among them, they surrounded him in a quick ring to prevent him from escaping.

Jim backed up against a mast, the hard coils of rope loosely tied around it rubbing through his shirt. In a desperate move, Jim reached around and grabbed the rope firmly in his hands as the crew members began making grabs for him. As Kale broke through the crowd, the young brunette managed to kick off a burly salamander from around his legs and had started clambering up the rope as fast as his sweating hands could take him. Kale laughed in the sport of the chase and followed after him along the rope.

Jim found himself standing along the beam of the mast, looking for other means of a quick getaway. His heart pounded in fear as he spotted his pursuer pulling himself up along the rope in double the time, a wicked gleam in his eyes. Just then, in his peripheral, he saw a loose rope hanging on the other side of the support beam of the mast. Making his way over there as fast as he dared, Jim didn't realize how late he took his opportunity. He gave an alarmed shout as a hand grabbed a hold of his boot and he fell hard against the wood underneath him, smacking his chin into it. His arms had instinctively wrapped themselves around the beam to keep him from sliding down the edge.

Looking over his shoulder, Kale proudly grinned, his hand firmly gripping Jim's boot. Kale had the beam under his arms, being the only thing holding him up. Jim kicked out with his other one, grunting in desperation as the first mate pinned it with his elbow.

"Time's up, kid."

Jim was wrenched from the mast with surprisingly inhuman strength and thrown to the deck a hundred and fifty feet below.

~/~/~/~/~/

_A/N: ...dun dun DUN! Did Jim make it? Is he going to be alright? We'll just have to wait and see! Next time, in the next chapter! Stay tuned and R&R like always!_


	12. The Plot Revealed

Antidote-

Paired Couple: Jim HawkinsXDimitri Sudayev/SLASH!/Lemon

_A/N: If you don't like what's in here... well, you know the rest! Treasure Planet belongs to Disney. Anastasia belongs to Fox Animation. Sinbad: Legend of the Seven Seas belongs to Dreamworks._

"-but we can't just go out there and confront _The Dark Serpent_! Not in our current condition, that is! There's still so many damages that we need to repair! And we're almost out of fuel-"

"That doesn't concern me at that moment, Doppler!" Captain Sudayev snapped, silencing the canid effectively. He took a sobering breath and continued in a civilized tone. "We have to go back there and get Hawkins out of their clutches. If he knows any of our vessel's weaknesses, he could be tortured for information."

Targon cleared his throat, capturing their attention. "Begging your pardon, Captain, but Doppler here is right. We can't just go searching for Hawkins while the ship is crippled and there's bodies to be put to burial. We need time to repair and reorganize. Now that some of the crew has perished, we should go to some ports out here and replace the ones we have lost. 'A crew that's been depleted should be well-stocked as soon as possible, so as to avoid further complications in the future', as ol' Augustus used to say."

"But if Jim-"

"And besides, I don't believe Hawkins ever did know about any possible weaknesses of _The Compass Blade_, anyway. He was only a part of our crew officially... for what, a day? Once a crew member is captured or left behind, they're as good as dead." Targon continued. "Back then, even before you swore yourself to _The Compass_, Captain, I was just a cabin boy. I remembered when Captain Augustus had lead the ship into a spot of trouble with the Procyon Armada over by the planet, Unubian. We left three members behind-"

"What does that have to do with anything, Targon? I'm nothing like Augustus, 'cause I know how to not let myself, or my crew for that matter, die!"

"Well, then, perhaps this will be of interest to you, Sir. The three that Augustus left behind were going to start a mutiny against us until this ship was brought into conflict. Instead, they managed to survive the onslaught and they were picked up by another pirate vessel weeks later lead by a captain named Leland-"

"Leland?" Delbert interrupted at last. "You don't mean Leland Hawkins, do you?"

"The same." Targon nodded. He continued. "Captain Hawkins took in the pirates that you know as enemies today, the same ones that were abandoned by this crew years ago. I remember that day... We left behind Sinbad, Kale, and Blain. We had orders to shoot them during the battle with the Procyon Armada, since we had discovered the plot of the mutiny a day beforehand. But we had sustained heavy casualties and damages. We left, thinking Sinbad, Kale, and Blain were as good as dead. We underestimated their will to live."

"That just makes it even more dire for us to get Jim back here!" Dimitri shouted in frustration, fearing the worst.

"That might not be the case," His second-in-command replied, not hearing the fear in his captain's voice. "Since young Hawkins doesn't know our weaknesses, he could just very well be our distraction for the moment until we can get this ship back into action and drive _The Serpent_ to the depths-"

"NO! I will not allow it, Targon! We will go back and wrest him from that scum, Sinbad! We cannot afford to lose another crew mate when he can easily be salvaged!"

"...If I may speak freely, Sir?"

Dimitri brushed a lock of hair that had escaped from underneath his hat from his forehead, nodding his accord.

The crustacean made a point of clearing his throat first. "Just who is Hawkins to you, Captain? You say he's just another crew mate, but I've noticed that he might be more than that. When he was first brought aboard on here six days ago as our captive, he knew your name when none of the rest of us had ever seen the likes of him before-"

The captain's eyes became crystallized jade. "What are you getting at?"

"...Begging your pardon, Sir, but it just seems to me that he might have been a past liaison, of a sort." Targon cast his eyes downward in sudden embarrassment. "O-or that he might still be."

Seeing the First Mate almost reduced to shaking fear in Dimitri's presence put the astrophysicist on high alert. It seemed that the former Dr. Sudayev had become a formidable foe in his three year absence from civilized society. Delbert would not have had the foresight-nor the imagination-to even think that the prestigious, almost galaxy reknown therapist would have become a ruthless cutthroat and had big, scary guys such as Targon quaking in his shadow from a simple-_okay, intimidating_-question.

"I'm only going to say this once: because you are my First Mate and my best friend, I won't kill you or put you in the brig for that kind of misconductive behavior. What is the first code of _The Compass Blade_?"

"Never question the Captain."

"Exactly. You have my mercy only this once, Targon. I trust you completely with my life, but don't make the mistake in questioning my motives and words now." The unspoken threat hung in the air like a ravenous thunderstorm ready to strike anyone down.

"Aye, Captain." The crustacean swallowed audibly, a bead of sweat trickling down his forehead.

"Good. As to your question," Dimitri walked over to his map strewn table, the very table that he and Jim had preoccupied passionately only two days ago, moments before the attack. "Jim... and I... share a past of sorts." He traced a finger along the grain of the wood, his mind wandering in thought. "But I do not share that kind of information freely, if you understand my meaning." His eyes shot up at Targon when he said this.

"I understand, Sir."

"Doppler?"

Delbert, who had remained transfixed by the whole ordeal this entire time, broke out of the trance and riveted his attention to the brunette in front of him. "Yes, Captain?"

"How many hours of labor do you think we'd need before we can get this creaking tub operational again?"

The canid pushed his thick glasses up the bridge of his nose, taking the time to think. "Well, if my calculations are correct-and we get enough fuel to replenish our stocks-we can get _The Compass _moving around without any qualms after five days. And that's pushing to our limits."

A closed fist hit the surface of the table, shaking the flames of the candles in a wild dance. "Damn it! Five days is too long! Are there any other options?"

"Unless you want to run the hull to pieces and blow the engines before we can reach _The Serpent_ in time to save Jim, then no."

Silence followed the statement as each man thought of the implications of what the astrophysicist had revealed.

Five minutes later, the door to the Cabin opened, revealing Ganttus, oddly grave, at the threshold. "Captain."

All three of them faced the felinoid. "Yes, Ganttus? What is it?" Dimitri replied.

"It's Ravengrail, Sir. He's got moments ter live. Thought ya might wanna see him 'afore he goes."

"Thank you, Ganttus. I'll be right there."

All four of them exited the Cabin, heading towards the galley.

~/~/~/~/~/

Jim could only grimace in pain as his sweat burned into the lacerations on his back and arms, shaking in exhaustion. His hair hung lank, plastered to his skin.

He had woken up an hour ago, only to find his wrists tied to metal rings in the wall farther down in the brig, a gag stuffed into his mouth. Waiting for him to gain consciousness, Kale had sat in a rough wooden chair for some time, holding a cat-of-nine-tails whip with a metal ball at the end of each strand. Jim didn't even have to wonder what the purpose of the metal balls were. Since he had taken that nasty fall off of the sails, he had been bruised badly, but someone had to have caught him as to avoid him having any broken bones. The metal balls added to those bruises, however, as well as sending an electrical discharge from each core every time Kale pressed a button on the handle of the whip. The leather of the whip served to cut into the brunette's skin, adding to the gruesome torture.

There wasn't even the blissful release of fainting to save him from the pain, as the electricity kept him awake with every bolt of power. It wasn't enough to harm him too much, but enough to draw out a groan of agony from his stifled lips.

After ten lashes, Kale would stop his ministrations to pull the gag away. "Ready to tell us what we need to know, Hawkins?"

For the first three sets, Jim had only spat phlegm and blood in his face in response, not ready to give up. But after a brutal hour, his limbs shook. He was so very tired...

His mouth was parched and his throat was raw as his tormentor ripped the gag away once more. "Ready to give in?"

Jim could hardly speak. All of the stitches he had on his back had opened up and bled profusely. New cuts laced over the old ones. The skin that hadn't been torn to ribbons ranged from mottled reds to unhealthy purples.

Just then, steps pounded down the stairs. Kale looked over his shoulder.

"How is everything faring with our guest?" Sinbad grinned.

"Looks like we won't get any thing out of him today."

"...A pity." The Captain's mouth turned into a stern line. His eyes roamed over the lacerations. "You may put the instrument away. We won't be needing it right now."

"Aye, Captain." Kale looped the whip through his sash.

Looking into Jim's unfocused eyes, he could see the pain had taken a greater toll than he had anticipated.

"You pushed it too far, Kale."

"Captain?"

"It's obvious that Hawkins can't take any more without bleeding out..." He turned to face his First Mate, his expression dangerously unreadable. "Another hour and he would have died. You do realize that we need him?"

"Aye." A drop of nervous sweat poured down Kale's temple.

With a sudden whistle of metal in the air, Sinbad pointed his scimitar's point at Kale's throat. His First Mate held his hands up in surrender, swallowing hard.

"Make such a foolish mistake like that again, and I shall have to take your head, dear friend." He sheathed his blade. "Now clean him up. Treat his wounds, but not enough to fully heal him. Jim needs a reminder of what's in store for him if he keeps resisting."

Sinbad left them then, his threat still woven tight in the air like a hanging noose. Kale, not wanting to further invoke Sinbad's anger, began untying Jim's bonds to the metal rings.

As soon as he was released from the wall, Jim slouched to the ground and fell again through the threshold of darkness.

~/~/~/~/~/

Jim woke again, laying upon his stomach on an old mattress on the floor of one of the many cells in the brig. Everything ached. Scabs throbbed upon his broken skin. He couldn't move, even if he wanted to. He spied dried blood on his forearms, his lips. Jim was alone.

Unable to do much else, he drifted off again into fitful, agonizing slumber.

~/~/~/~/

Dimitri entered the galley, quickly spotting the cook off at the far corner table of the room. A figure laid upon the table amidst puddles of dark red blood. He knew immediately that Ravengrail was on the verge of death. He hurried over. The Serpentis-ille intercepted him, still holding a needle and thread in his hands and looking worn beyond exertion, shaking his head solemnly.

"He wasss the firssst I treated sssince the attack. I've been trying to keep him going sssince then. He lossst too much blood, I'm afraid..."

"...You did the best you could, Groven. Stand down and rest."

"Thank you, Captain." And with the bow of his head, Groven left.

Dimitri, closely followed by Targon and Delbert, approached the table. He grimaced at the hole that was badly sewn shut in his chest. The injury seemed to look as if it came from a blaster cannon, head on. Blood still gushed out of the wound; splashed onto the table and floor.

The Captain looked up at Ravengrail's face, unable to imagine the pain and precious energy it took to hold on this long. Ravengrail looked up at the three of them through his one good eye-the other was swollen shut. Blood dribbled down his chin, making the three surrounding him realize that he was internally bleeding.

He struggled to take a deep breath. Coughed up more blood. "Cap...tain..." He wheezed.

"I'm here. What is it?"

"...I-It... was... an honor... serving... within your ranks... S-Sir... I... just... wish... I... could have... t-t-taken... some... of the b-bastards with... me..."

"Don't worry about that now, mate. The point is that we've crippled them. We've destroyed their fuel injectors; they can't go anywhere."

"I'm going to personally see to it that those dogs pay for attacking us." Targon added.

"...That's good..."

"For what it's worth, Eulessus Ravengrail, you served this crew well and you were a dear friend. Your sacrifice will not be in vain. We will avenge you." Dimitri said, taking a hold of the other man's hand in a fist.

"...I-I... know... who... pushed Hawkins... overboard..." His hand instantly became a vice, cutting off the circulation in Dimitri's hand. "...you have to... to kill him f-first... before it's too late... he's the one... who... led _The Serpent_... to us... a-and it was-" A blaster shot went right through his skull, snuffing out the remainder of his life.

Dimitri, Targon, and Doppler jumped up from the resounding blast, looking over at the stairs that led out of the galley. At the bottom of the stairs stood a group of ten armed crew mates, lead by a battle-scarred, male feline with a torn ear and a crooked, psychotic grin.

"I never did like that feline." Doppler muttered under his breath, his hands slowly raising in the air with the other two.

_A/N: I love cliff-hangers, don't you? :D We'll just have to wait and see what happens next! Are Dimitri, Doppler, and Targon going to make it? Will Dimitri be able to come to Jim's rescue, before all is lost? Dun dun...DUUUUN!_


	13. Abnormally Thin Wrists

Antidote-

Paired Couple: Jim HawkinsXDimitri Sudayev/SLASH!/Lemon

_A/N: And welcome back to another segment of your favorite fanfic! Please do drop in and leave us a comment, savvy? Treasure Planet belongs to Disney. Anastasia belongs to Fox Animation. Sinbad: Legend of the Seven Seas belongs to Dreamworks._

Through the groggy fog of sleep, he opened his eyes to the sight of the Captain looking thoughtfully at him. He detected that there might be a hint of regret in his eyes, but it flashed away just as quickly when Sinbad noticed that he was awake. He shifted in his seat upon the floor, folding his legs underneath one another, and leaned forward on his elbows.

"How are you _feeling_, Hawkins?" The sneer seemed rather forced.

At least his perception of people was still sharp. He could play this game.

"...W-Would like a bit of fresh air, but otherwise... I'm doin' alright..." Jim spoke, his voice brittle and dry. He turned over on his right side, facing Sinbad, coughing and groaning as he did so.

A twitch of an eyebrow. "I can see that."

Jim rolled onto his stomach and set his hands underneath to push himself up.

"You might not want to be doing that."

His arms shook as he pushed with the rest of his strength. But as he struggled to get up, a faint _crack_ got his attention just before his hand buckled painfully and he fell back onto the creaking, old mattress. The fabric of the mattress smelled like dust and rotten purps. He gasped from the impact and the jarring agony in his wrist. His back still throbbed from the lash marks, although now they felt only inflamed and dull.

"Here. Let me see." Sinbad turned Jim over onto his back and lifted him into a sitting position by his shoulders. He took a hold of his hand and stretched it open, palm up, in his own. He gingerly prodded at the slender wrist, which spasmed involuntarily. "Does that spot hurt?"

"All of it does, really."

Sinbad grunted in acknowledgment, pulling out a roll of worn bandages and tightly wrapping it around Jim's wrist.

"For any reason, do not move your wrist and do not remove this wrap."

Jim looked down at his wrist in confusion and looked back up at the stern gaze of his adversary. "Why are you helping me?" He rasped.

Sinbad smirked. "Perhaps it's because you remind me of me when I was your age. Resilient, brave... and stupid. Most men would have cracked by now."

A dark scowl. "Well, I'm not like them and I'm most certainly not like you."

"How would you know?"

"...What's your angle here? Going from getting your lapdog to whip me to death, to lightly bantering with me. Just how messed up, or lonely, are you?"

Sinbad dropped the facade and got in Jim's face. "You know, just because you look like your father, it doesn't mean I won't just beat the shit out of you myself for your insolence."

"You already did that, remember?" The youth had the gall to flash him an icy grin.

"No more games, Hawkins. I want your answer," He suddenly picked Jim up by his shoulders and slammed him against a wall, holding him there. Jim's back stung with discomfort. "If you keep refusing to answer me, I'll have no choice but to have Kale use you as his personal punching bag until you talk. Now, what is _The Compass Blade_'s weakness?"

Jim was silent for a long moment, glaring daggers at Sinbad and pulling at the fingers that dug into his shoulders.

"Even if I did know the answer to that, I wouldn't tell you."

Sinbad shook his head, his laughter borne of anger and frustration. His eyes glinted dangerously. "You certainly do possess Leland's stubbornness..."

The brunette didn't know how to answer to that and remained quiet. After a moment, the Captain gave a disappointed sigh.

"So be it..." He half turned to shout up the stairs of the brig. "Kale!"

His First Mate quickly made his way down the stairs and stood next to him. "Yes, Captain?"

"It seems our prisoner can't get enough of your brutal methods... Please, do oblige that request of his, will you?"

The big guy smiled maliciously.

"With pleasure."

~/~/~/~/~/~/~/

Ganttus couldn't believe that this was happening! He had the-now former-captain of _The Compass Blade_ under his mercy, along with the First Mate and the ship's astrophysicist. It was a heady feeling! After years of living on this ship, he was finally able to take action and finish what was started all those years ago. Perhaps Ganttus' real captain would let him take over _The Compass,_ now that he successfully took it over! The possibilities struck a chord of enthusiasm within the felinoid's breast.

He looked over at the assembled prisoners on the other side of the galley, chuckling to himself. To see that smug Captain Sudayev reduced to being tied up and ready to be shot down by ten of his previously loyal crew mates brought Ganttus great satisfaction. To see the canid and the crustacean in the same situation was a plural bonus. Ganttus rubbed a finger along the barrel of his blaster.

"Such a shame tha' none o' dis worked out fer either o' ya," He said, his one good eye shining with delight. "But I guess wha' goes 'round comes 'round, eh Targon?"

Targon remained quiet, narrowing all six of his eyes in hatred.

"Now, I suppose you three want a li'l explanation as ta why I would pull such a darin' feat..." The maniacal feline laughed.

"It all started when I first came aboard an' under the banner of ol' Captain Augustus, ten years ago. He ne'er did trust me wit' anyt'ing around the ship. Always had me workin' menial tasks, t'ings that those less dan me should have been doin'. After two years o' dat, I couldn't take it anymore! I was always workin' bottom rung; ne'er given anyt'ing more dan dat! By then, though we just acquired new crew mates from a remote planet o' Ardroogen. We inducted four new members; Kale, Blain, Ravengrail, and Sinbad." He mused, as if to himself.

Doppler stood there in between Dimitri and Targon, keeping an eye on the blasters that the ten crew mates held with ease. He was going to die! The astrophysicist couldn't believe it was going to end like this! He never imagined he would get ranted at and then die at the hands of a deranged feline that had some serious delusions and a bruised ego.

Delbert wasn't sure how he was going to manage to get out of this...

"They were de hardest workin' mates dat dis ship had e'er seen! But, like wit' me, ol' Augustus treated dem worse dan de prisoners we brought on board during raids. Sinbad made an idea to start a mutiny; he would take over de ship once Augustus was gone. There were about twenty of us in all, but we were sure we'd be able to overthrow de ship. Unfortunately, Augustus found out about the mutiny dat Sinbad was startin' and planned to have him, Kale, an' Blain killed the very next day. He had a suspicion dat Ravengrail an' I had somet'in' to do wit' the mutiny, but he couldn't be sure. He would keep an eye on us after tha'. And, o' course, Ravengrail managed to win his way back into Augustus' favor."

The canid thought hard, desperately searching for a way out... which the only one happened to be on the other side of the gang of sensitive gunmen on the other side of the room, whom were willingly following that psychopath.

There had to be a way out of this! There just had to be!

"We were over by Unubian the next day, when we were ambushed by the Procyon Armada. Durin' de cross-fire, Augustus managed to separate those three from de ship an' had de other fifteen either killed durin' the fight, or he had dem personally executed. Once Sinbad an' the others were left behind on Unubian, our ship took off without them, to let dem die. They fought fer survival fer two years, revenge heavy in their hearts. Once dey were inducted into Captain Hawkins' crew on _The Dark Serpent_, Sinbad immediately relayed secret messages to me via electronic pulses. I figured Ravengrail wanted just as much revenge as I did, so I told him o' those messages.

As Doppler began to internally despair, figuring it was no use in trying anymore, he clenched his hands tight behind his back, praying to whatever being there might be out there in the Etherium for a swift, painless end, at the very least...

_...wait a minute..._

"For de last three years, we relayed messages back an' forth. Sinbad tried to get information about any weaknesses on dis vessel, but like him, I wasn't given enough trust to know anyt'ing abou' de mechanics of de ding. Neither was Ravengrail. So we waited. An' only a week after relayin' messages wit' Sinbad, that's where you had come in, Sudayev. I stopped trustin' Ravengrail when he became a close friend o' yours during those couple o' years." He said pointedly to Dimitri, giving him an ugly scowl.

"Augustus brought you aboard, despite orders, an' trained you to be his second-in-command, since his First Mate died durin' de fight wit' de Armada an' he couldn't trust de rest o' de crew. He feared another mutiny would happen again. O' course, Augustus was right, although it happened after his fall over on planet Meifren. An' so... here we are today. I recently got some recruits to join Sinbad's crew, if you didn't notice de gentlemen behind me, getting ready to blow your brains out into the Etherium. See, unlike you, Sinbad will offer dem higher ranks within his crew an' promise more loot shared among the rest o' us, while I take my rightful place as Captain of _The Compass Blade_, and ally to _The Dark Serpent!_" He cackled, pulling back the hammer on the blaster.

The feline walked up and got into Dimitri's face, smiling all the while.

"I swear to you, Ganttus, I will make you suffer for your treachery!" Dimitri spat, shaking with rage.

"Hmmm... Dat would be nice wouldn't it, if only you could get outta yer bonds, eh?" Ganttus laughed again. He pointed the gun up into Dimitri's chin, slowly squeezing the trigger. "Say goodbye, Captain Sudayev!"

Dimitri looked at him dead in the eye, his heart pounding fiercely. The feeling of imminent death swooped within his stomach, causing him to cramp up from the knots of anguish and panic. But he didn't cower or look away. Instead, he lifted his head up in the last form of defiance and pride.

Only one tear escaped from the corner of an eye.

_I'm sorry, Jim..._

Suddenly, Dimitri heard a shout from his left, one that was brave and borderline hysterical.

Delbert took a flying leap at the surprised feline and wrestled him to the ground before Ganttus' goons could react. Jumping up with speed that Dimitri didn't know he possessed, Doppler held the blaster in his hand and shot three men down, snuffing out their lives. Spinning in a small half-circle, he clipped another crew mate in the hand and leg, and shot another in the shoulder. As the other five took their first shots at the crazy canid, Doppler pulled Ganttus up by the collar of his shirt and held the gun to the feline's temple, effectively stopping any more blasts from flying.

"Call them off, Ganttus, or I'll take your head off!" Delbert growled.

Ganttus' ears pulled back in fear as he started hyperventilating. No one had ever gotten the best of Ganttus before!

"Do it NOW!" The astrophysicist screamed, adrenaline pumping through his veins like solarfire.

"...Do as he says, lads!" The feline called out desperately.

The five crew mates dropped their weapons and slid them over to Doppler.

"Now, I want you to release us, before I change my mind about not killing you." He said with deadly calm. "Have Sudayev and Targon untied."

Ganttus nodded his accord, his whole body shaking with fear and exhaustion. Blood ran down his face from a cut on his forehead, running down his swollen cheek.

Dimitri and Targon had been stunned speechless. Never did they imagine that bumbling, awkward Dr. Delbert Doppler would pull a commando assault on their would-be assassin and pull them out of certain death like this!

As soon as the rope fell free from their wrists, Targon and Dimitri immediately head-butted the crew mates that had untied them, knocking them out, and snatched up blasters just in time as the other three were reaching back down for their weapons. The three enemies were assessed quickly, leaving Ganttus the only one conscious.

"Go ahead! Kill me, if you t'ink you have the balls to do so!" Ganttus yelled at Doppler.

"Believe me, nothing would give me greater pleasure than to do so," he slammed the butt of his gun into the back of Ganttus' head, knocking him out cold. "But I think keeping you alive to witness your failure would make me happier."

Dimitri approached him, equal parts shocked and impressed."Doppler! What in the Etherium was_ that_ all about? How did you-?"

"I have abnormally thin wrists, it seems." Delbert picked up the rope on the floor and started tying Ganttus' hands behind his back, double knotting to make sure.

"But where did you learn to fight like that?"

"I did what I could, given the situation. The element of surprise is always key to winning fights like that. As for the shooting, well, I didn't enjoy killing them, but my father taught me how to shoot when I was younger. He thought I'd do well in the Galaxy Police Academy, but as it turns out I wasn't cut out as G.P.A. material after all." He stood for a second, deep in thought. "Although, somehow, I don't think that's right. My memories are a little fuzzy on that."

"Well, you did a fine job in disposing of these mutineers, Doppler." Targon praised.

"Yes. Now we can go topside and figure out what to do from there. When Ganttus wakes up, he'll give us the coordinates back to _The Dark Serpent_." Dimitri made for the stairs while Targon remained behind to tie up the other two crew mates that were knocked out from their injuries.

"What makes you think he'll do that?" Doppler asked, catching up with him.

"That bastard won't have a choice."

"But even when Ganttus wakes up, and if he does give us the coordinates, it's more likely that Sinbad's ship will be long gone by then. And we still have repairs to finish and fuel to acquire. That's four or five days before we ourselves can move! Even Ganttus won't know where _The Serpent_ will be."

"Not so! If Troy crippled them like he said he did before he died, then they're not going anywhere either!" Dimitri laughed delightedly.

~/~/~/~/~/

_A/N: YAY! Doppler saved the day! ...That just sounds weird, no? :) Anyway, stay tuned for more chapters, as always! Next chapter: a celebrity appearance! And what's this...? Someone familiar showing up, too? Who do YOU think it is? :D_


	14. An Old Cyborg

Antidote-

Paired Couple: Jim HawkinsXDimitri Sudayev/SLASH!/Lemon

_A/N: Things are gonna get weirder and weirder... Hold onto your hats! Treasure Planet belongs to Disney. Anastasia belongs to Fox Animation. Sinbad: Legend of the Seven Seas belongs to Dreamworks._

Dimitri, Delbert, and Targon stood around the wheel of the ship, looking over a detailed, grid map of the quadrant that the ship was now currently in. It had been two days since the repairs had started and the other two could tell that the captain was getting anxious. Dimitri had hardly rested during that time, looking haggard and grim to be around. He spoke briefly and to the point, cutting out any unnecessary chit-chat that didn't pertain to moving the ship or it's progress.

"Doppler, you say that all we need now is the fuel?" He said tiredly.

"That is correct. My readings indicate that we only have enough fuel to pump this ship a little under five leagues before it completely gives out."

"I see..." Dimitri dragged a finger across the map, following the grid lines with precision. He held his index finger over a point towards the upper right side of the map. "We are here right now. And if we take this route," He traced his finger over the paper again about three inches towards the lower right corner, right next to an illustration of a planet. "we should end up at Razboon in a days' travel. They should have some fuel there, since this is a pretty remote region in the galaxy and most ships come looking around there for fuel and restocking provisions."

"But, Sir," Targon started, looking over the measurements along the edges of the map, calculating how long that three inch line was in scale to the map. "That looks like it goes sixty leagues."

"I know. That's why I need you, Doppler, and two others to go take a cruiser and head over there and get the fuel for us."

"Wait a minute! Why me?" Doppler complained.

"Well, you're the only one that knows what kind of fuel we need." Dimitri reasoned. "Who else could go, but you?"

"How did you ever refill the ship with fuel before, if you didn't know what fuel it was?"

"Troy was the only one that knew what fuel we needed." Targon replied.

Dimitri nodded. "Troy'd been with this ship since Augustus was made captain, or so I hear."

"Oh boy..." Doppler leaned back against the railing of the ship. It was up to him now to know what fuel they needed.

Dimitri rubbed the stubble of his unshaven jaw, thinking. "Okay, all we need is for you four to go to Razboon, get the fuel, and come back here. In the meantime, I'll order the others to move the ship to some discreet location so that no one will chance upon us while we wait. This expedition should take two days to complete. Now, if either of you should encounter problems, send me a signal and I'll dispatch another cruiser to come in after you." He handed over a curious, oval device with one button on it in the dead center. The device weighed at approximately a pound and a half.

Doppler knew immediately what it was; it was like a remote that would send out a pulsation to another device that Dimitri had clipped to his sheath. The pulsation was like a beacon, which would alert the other person with the device about where to locate where the pulsing was coming from. It had been a while since Doppler had held onto one of these. He hadn't seen one since he was a child.

"Hopefully, with any luck, we don't have to use these." Dimitri added as an after thought.

Doppler clipped it to his belt. The captain also handed him a bag of doubloons and a blaster, which he also took, albeit with gingerly care.

"Get what we need and come back soon." The brunette looked at Targon and Doppler with a stern gaze, but the astrophysicist could see a hardness in his irises; anyone with his perception could have picked up that Dimitri was anxious and worried.

Targon spoke up. "We'll take Masterson and Engle, Cap'n."

"Very well. Let me know when you guys have landed on Razboon." He put a tightening hand on each of their shoulders. "Good luck."

"Aye, Captain." The twosome said.

~/~/~/~/~/~/

Doppler chewed absentmindedly on a piece of hardtack, missing the meager meal they had for lunch an hour ago. Although there was plenty of food to last them until they got back to the ship in two more days in the one pack they brought with them, they had to conserve it as much as possible. Engle was at the controls of the little cruiser, aiming it towards Razboon, which grew closer and closer. It had only been twenty-three hours since they left _The Compass Blade_ behind, in which Dimitri had immediately ordered the ship to hide behind a nebulonic cloud to avoid any possible detection from unwanted visitors as soon as the four crew members left on their mission almost a day ago.

Masterson kept a large, watchful eye to the Etherium, holding a blaster in his clawed hands. Targon kept a tight hold on the map that detailed the planet's various ports and towns.

"Due left, at fifteen knots." Targon said to Engle, who adjusted the steering accordingly.

"This is going to take quite a little while longer, I suppose." Doppler muttered, setting the hardtack down next to him.

"We've about an hour before we come up on the planet's surface, Doc. Shouldn't be too long now." The crustacean said, his red eyes gleaming in anticipation as he looked upon Razboon.

Doppler stared up into the stars, wondering how Jim was holding up. If only Jim had never left The Benbow Inn, neither of them would be branded in with pirates and none of this would have happened. He sighed, shaking his head. It was too late now for wishes. He just hoped that Jim was still alive and well.

"Sir, there's someone coming up on us!" Masterson yelled, pointing a gnarled talon towards the far left of them.

A fleet of thirty, small cruisers sped through the Etherium, immediately gaining up on them. From the rear of the fleet, a ship half the size of _The Compass Blade_ came into view, solar sails fully furled and its flag bearing a blue ten-pointed star with a yellow crescent moon peeking from behind it.

A magnified voice called to the four pirates from the vessel, a voice that seemed familiar to Delbert, although he wasn't sure why. "Halt where you are! This is Captain Amelia of the Galaxy Police, Sector Five, Quadrant Six-Six-Zero. You are under arrest!"

The name across the side of the ship was stamped in regal lettering. _RLS Legacy_.

~/~/~/~/~/~/

"Shit! Looks like we'll have to outrun them." Targon moved to the front of the cruiser. "Engle, hand me the controls. I'll steer us out of this."

"B-But they said we have to-" Doppler sputtered, ducking as soon as the first shots were made from the fleet cruisers.

"Don't have to do anything, Doppler! They'd have us hang if they caught us! Are you a pirate or not?" Engle scolded the astrophysicist, shooting his blaster back at the enemy with a light of blood lust in his feline eyes. His tiger-striped coat bristled as a shot came close to hitting him.

Masterson handed Doppler an extra blaster from his holster. "Shoot 'em!" He took up his own gun, his dark blue feathers standing on end like Engle's fur.

As the three took down two cruisers and were aiming for third, fourth, and fifth ones, Targon took a sharp right turn while hitting the switch for turbo power. Their trajectory increased ten fold, but Targon couldn't hold the turbo for long, as it would kill their power within twenty minutes. He encircled his claw around the steering wheel, hoping that there would be a place for them to lose their pursuers. And then, in his peripheral, he saw it.

"Hold on, lads!"

Targon headed for a huge satellite that was about a few thousand feet away. When straightening out from the turn, a single blast singed a hole through a solar sail and hit Engle in the shoulder. He hissed in pain and held the injury tight, blood leaking from under his fingers.

Targon engaged the throttle and zipped around the satellite, almost crashing in to the hunk of hard wiring in the process. Expertly, the First Mate killed the engines and stopped the turbo as soon as their craft was hidden well in a pocket of darkness.

"What in the blazes are you doin', Tar-" Targon pinched Masterson's beak closed, signaling all of them to be silent.

Seconds later, the huge contingent of Galaxy Police cruisers, followed by the slower moving _RLS Legacy_, zoomed past them without giving the satellite a second glance.

Delbert toppled to the deck, having almost fainted. "Upon my word..." he panted, "...I thought... we were... done.. for..."

Masterson, Targon, and Engle broke out into laughter. "Come on, Doc. Man up a little!"

"There's nothing like an adrenaline rush when you're being gunned down by the G.P.!" Masterson smiled widely.

Engle winked at him, although wincing in pain from his injury. "Maybe Doppler should come with us on our next expedition. He'd get a real kick out of it."

_Oh, geez..._

~/~/~/~/~/

An hour later, they slowly came down to port in a little town that the map only stated as _"Lime"_. Whatever the real name of the town was, no one knew, since the welcome sign for the community was so old, the letters were faded into illiteracy. As the four of them looked around the docks, they could see no signs of life within the desecrated buildings. Instead of letting their cruiser sit at one of the docks, they sped the craft through the deserted streets, looking for somewhere to hide it.

Ten minutes later, they came upon a large building that looked to be what once was a storage facility. Masterson took over the controls while Targon, Doppler, and an injured Engle pushed the large, metal doors open. After getting the rusty, creaking hinges to obey them, the bird-like creature led the craft inside and shut it off.

"How're you feeling, Engle?" asked Targon.

"I can't use this arm for much, that's for sure." He said, gripping his shoulder.

"Let's get it bandaged."

Doppler tied off the gauze wrap two minutes later, worried about how much blood was seeping into the fabric. "Are you sure you're going to be okay?"

"I'll be fine, Doc." he said, waving off his concern.

"Although you say you're okay, we can't risk that." Targon stated. "We still need the cruiser guarded until we get back anyway." It wasn't a request.

"Aye, Sir." The felinoid hopped back into the craft and threw down the pack of supplies. He sat down and waited, his blaster gun in hand. "I'm going to see if I can repair the solar sail while you guys go get the fuel."

"We'll be back later tonight. Be prepared to fly this thing when we get back. We don't want to risk any chances." And with that, Doppler and Masterson closed the heavy steel doors of the storage facility, securely hiding Engle and the cruiser within its dark confines.

The three of them headed down the street, cautiously peeking around corners, hoping to find a local of Lime or a place that happened to store fuel. Delbert looked down an alley, feeling his hackles rise. The dead silence of this place, the abandonment of the streets... It gave the astrophysicist the creeps. He gulped audibly, gripping his blaster tightly, hands shaking and palms perspiring.

"Hey, come look at this!" Masterson called aloud from several feet ahead of the other two.

Targon and Doppler came to stand beside him and began to notice long, white marks painted on several doors of the buildings.

Doppler adjusted the glasses on his snout and peered at the paint of one door, which looked to be flaking and weather-worn. "What do you think they're for?"

"They died."

The three of them turned around to face a human female, who wore a decrepit dress the color of ash, silver-streaked blond hair thrown back into a messy bun, and faint age lines around her mouth, eyes, and forehead. Her back stooped slightly, carrying the heavy burden of long, lonely years. Doppler was guiltily reminded of Sarah back at home.

He should have left a note before he chased after Jim.

"They all died." The woman reiterated. "The white marks indicate their graves. This town used to be much bigger, but there's only forty of us left now."

"What happened here?" Targon asked her.

"Fifty years ago, a radiation spill on the outskirts of town poisoned the citizens that were close enough to it. It was an accident; someone was working with a new type of metal they had discovered and excavated many miles from here. But they didn't know that when the metal heated up to a certain degree, it'd turn into a gaseous state. That gas was poisonous upon contact. It killed two-thirds of the people living here." She looked down between her feet. They noticed for the first time that she was barefoot. "I was twelve at the time. My family perished in the epidemic."

"I'm sorry for your loss, ma'am." Doppler said, coming over and taking her hands in his. "If there's anything we can do for you, you have only to ask."

Targon and Masterson gave him a look, but remained silent.

She shook her head and looked into his eyes with a sad smile. "There's nothing you could do for me. I plan to stay here until I rejoin my family again." Her sea-green eyes rimmed with tears.

"...Thank you for sharing your story with us. I hope that you are able to see your family when your time comes."

"Thank you, kind stranger. It seems that you and your friends are in need of help yourselves, though. Is there something I can do to help you?"

"As a matter of fact," Targon said, "there is. Would you direct us to where your town keeps its fuel for Etherium ships?"

"Well, we haven't used Etherium ships in a long time-not since the epidemic-but we should have a huge stock of them on the other side of town in that direction." She pointed a bony finger to the South East. "You'll be looking for an Etherium ship hangar, the only big building on that side. An elderly cyborg owns it; he tinkers with all sorts of gadgets back there. Mainly with solar surfers. He's got a real sharp attitude about him. If you can get on his initial good side, you might be able to barter a price with him for the fuel."

"Thank you for the information. We'll head over there."

Just as the threesome headed towards their goal, Delbert turned around to say goodbye. "Have a wonderful-"

He looked around, confused. The woman had disappeared.

~/~/~/~/~/

An hour later, as the sun was setting, they came upon a large, stonework building with boarded up windows and a rusted, metal garage door big enough to fit five medium-sized freight cruisers side-by-side inside. On the left side of the building, a heavy wooden door led to the mysterious depths of the hangar.

Silently deciding upon the wooden door, they stood before it.

"...I have a bad feeling about this place." Masterson quietly spoke, his eyes darting around and feathers ruffling uncomfortably. He held a steady talon on the trigger of his gun.

The First Mate rapped his claw upon the door. "Let's just make this quick."

A slight breeze rolled down the street, but nothing stirred in its presence. Doppler pulled his waist coat around himself more securely, wishing it wasn't so cold.

As Targon raised his claw to knock again, the door creaked inward, beckoning the three of them into the faint inner glow and surrounding darkness. A cybernetic, blue eye peeked between the door and the frame.

"Who's come to call at me doorstep?" Answered a voice.

Targon, as fearless as ever, responded. "Three... travelers... looking for a cyborg. Are you the one who could provide us with fuel?"

The eye swiveled in its socket, sizing each of them up. "Look like no travelers I know of."

"How many would you know of?"

"...Fair enough. But that brings about another question of mine. What are you doing at a remote planet such as this?"

"Our ship ran low on fuel. Will you help us, or not?"

"Well, if you're not here to cause trouble-"

"We're not." Masterson interjected, his patience wearing thin. "We're just in a big hurry."

The door slammed shut at his words. Targon narrowed his six eyes at Masterson. "Nice going."

A second later, the door opened back up, wide enough to let them through.

"Well, make yourselves at home then. But mind you, don't knock anything over."

They stepped inside the old hangar, of which was full of electronic parts stacked in heaps and piles around the floor. Some piles came up to Doppler's knees, while others almost reached the vaulted ceiling. The piles of tools and gadgets created a narrow pathway that wound a third of a mile to the other side of the building. At the end of the path was a large metal workshop table, cluttered with parts, wires, and an electric lamp, and a single wooden chair that had seen better years. A curious perch, one that a bird would sit on, stood next to the table. Squeak toys and small bones cluttered the floor around the perch.

"Looks like Gishna went off hiding again. She'll be around sooner or later." The hulking figure in front of them muttered.

The old cyborg sat down in his chair and folded his arms over his chest. He was somewhat lean in frame, probably from the slow deterioration of his advanced years, but he still possessed strong, lean muscles on his old bones. He wore an apron over a thick blue shirt and a rope kept his dark pants upon his body.

"The name's Seegurd. Conig Seegurd. Now, what do I owe the pleasure in your visit?"

~/~/~/~/~/

_A/N: The familiar face... Amelia! -**everyone cheers-** The celebrity... Conig Seegurd! -**crickets chirping-** … You know! The guy that I mentioned in "Poison" as being one of Jim's role-models? The guy who invented solar surfers? There's a celebrity for ya! :D R&R as always! We're just getting to the good part. Oh, and Amelia doesn't just make a one-time appearance either, so stay tuned! ^^_


	15. Fight Or Flight?

Antidote-

Paired Couple: Jim HawkinsXDimitri Sudayev/SLASH!/Lemon

_A/N: Things are going to start making sense soon... in 3, 2, 1... We have liftoff! Treasure Planet belongs to Disney. Anastasia belongs to Fox Animation. Sinbad: Legend of the Seven Seas belongs to Dreamworks._

Doppler approached the work table, keeping his eyes on the old cyborg. Although Conig still had quite a bit of vigor left in him, he had the smallest of quakes within his limbs and his cybernetic parts looked rusted and second-hand at best.

Those small details did little to draw out a gasp from him, however. Although the cyborg's engineered eye moved about this way and that, obviously being able to distinguish his guests by their heat signatures, Delbert couldn't look away from the other one. It might have once been green, or perhaps blue, but the organic eye had a light gray film over it now. Conig was blind.

Unable to explain, even to himself, Doppler had a sudden shift of depression wave over him. The cyborg reminded him of someone... perhaps...

"Is somethin' the matter?" Conig asked him.

He shook his head. "It's nothing." Back in the game, "We heard that you have stored fuel here for Etherium ships. We need to have Grade Eight-I-Nine-dash-Zero-Three. Would you happen to have any that we may purchase from you?"

"Hmmm... How many are you lookin' to buy?"

"Five tanks, if possible. Four at the least."

The cyborg shifted in his seat, calculating on both of his organic sets of fingers while muttering to himself. He gave a smug grin, the metal making up part of his jaw glinting in the faint light. "Well... I'll tell you now, it ain't cheap. 'Specially for five tanks."

"How much?"

"I'd say... two hundred doubloons, to be fair."

Masterson clicked his beak indignantly. "Two hundred? We could buy five times as much with the same price!"

Targon pushed the bird-like creature behind him. Leaning a little against the wall for support, he eyed the cyborg with suspicion.

"Nobody really comes out to this part of the galaxy. I hardly think you get any business being this far out. Why would such an honest gentleman, such as yourself, try to rob us of our purse for tanks of fuel that you'll never use?"

Conig's blind eye furrowed in anger. "And who says I won't ever use those tanks? Besides, I could put any price tag on what I see fit. The fuel is mine."

"As it should be." Targon said, not backing down. "But since no one else will most-likely land on Razboon anytime in the near future, why don't you just lower the price a little bit so as to make it more accommodating for all of us?"

"...And what's the accommodating price?"

"Fifty."

"FIFTY?" The cyborg jumped up from his chair, successfully knocking it over in the process. "Why don't you just truss me up for crow bait? Do I look addled in the brain to you? I may not see as well anymore, but I am not one to be toyed with!"

Suddenly, out from underneath the table came a terrible hissing. Everyone stopped the tirade for a moment, as Doppler was getting ready to duck underneath the desk to identify the source.

"That would not be a good idea. Gishna gets really angry when I get to yelling. Plus, it's almost her dinner time."

"What in the world is a Gishna?" The astrophysicist asked.

"Not _a Gishna_. Her name is just Gishna." The cyborg smiled momentarily. "Just stick your hand out under there and let her know you're there."

Looking out from underneath the gloom of the table was a single orb of orange light peering out at the astrophysicist. As the canid held out his hand at the light, a pattering of floppy feet hit the floor at a quick speed, that it took Doppler off-guard. As he retracted his hand, an odd creature came skidding across the concrete floor.

Gishna reminded Delbert of an ape-like being, except with one large eye that took over most of the face.

The creature looked to be covered in a lilac coat of fur, with deep red quills jutting outward. Even right now, as Gishna was clearly upset, the lilac color was slowly swelling into a dusky purple and the body became spherical with the sharp quills jutting out like a blow fish. Her long tail flicked to and fro from the rotund body.

"Is that a...?" Doppler became ecstatic within seconds of seeing the animal, but he had to ask, in case he was dreaming.

"Yes. That would be Gishna, the Primetorian."

"Only ten of these are left in the entire Etherium!"

The astrophysicist reached again towards the Primetorian, his curiosity outweighing the initial fear he had for the hissing creature. She blinked her large orange eye, growling at him.

"Come here, girl." Conig called to Gishna. The creature deflated quickly, turning back into its original color. It began cooing at the sight of the ancient cyborg and ran on all fours towards its master. Gishna sat upon his shoulder, laughing and clapping her enlarged hands like a child.

"That... is probably... the most... disturbing thing I... have ever seen..." Masterson enunciated carefully, his eyes wide and his feathers ruffled as he stared at Gishna.

"Now, can we get back to negotiating, cyborg?" Targon asked Conig impatiently.

A metallic fist slammed into the work table. "I WILL NOT SELL MY FUEL FOR LESS THAN TWO HUNDRED, MARK ME WORDS!"

"FIFTY IS A FAIR ENOUGH PRICE," Targon yelled back, "YOU STUBBORN HUNK OF HARDWARE!"

"I'LL NOT TAKE ANY OFFER MADE TO ME THAT IS LESS THAN WHAT I ASKED FER, ESPECIALLY IF IT'S OFFERED BY AN OVERGROWN LOBSTER!"

Suddenly, Delbert felt like everything was too quite outside of this hangar. The yelling match echoed around the metallic walls and bounced back at them. But his fear was initiated, not by a gut instinct, but from watching the Primetorian cocking its head this way and that on Seegurd's shoulder, making nervous clicking noises. The other three in the room seemed not to notice.

"-ONE HUNDRED-"

"-TWO HUNDRED-"

"-ONE FIFTY-"

"Ummm... gentlemen, perhaps we should hurry this process along, d-don't you agree?" Doppler interrupted, feeling his brow starting to sweat.

"I DON'T NEED TO TAKE THIS FROM A DECREPIT CYBORG! I AM THE FIRST MATE OF THE NOTORIOUS CAPTAIN SUDAYEV!" Targon pulled his blaster from his holster and aimed it at Conig. "NOW, HAND OVER YOUR FUEL, ON FEAR OF LOSING YOUR MISERABLE LIFE!" Masterson pulled his gun out as well.

The cyborg jumped to his feet and lifted one leg into the air, the cybernetic parts forming into a cannon, aiming at his adversary. "YOU'LL GO DOWN WITH ME, YOU FLEA-BITTEN PIRATE!"

"Uh... please, gentlemen, let's just all be calm and civilized about this..."

Then, out of the dead silence between the three that held each other at gun point, a sound of engines crept closer to the hangar. A voice called out, booming into the charged atmosphere and breaking the tension.

"Come out with your weapons surrendered! This is Captain Amelia of the Galaxy Police! We have you surrounded!"

The three lowered their weapons, looking out at the garage-like door, as if expecting it to be blown to pieces. Seegurd looked as if he were going to explode himself, if only from outrage.

"You... IDIOTS! You brought the Galaxy Police after you?"

~/~/~/~/~/

_A/N: Told you she'd make another scene! :D Next up: the flight from Razboon! Will they make it back to The Compass Blade? :) As well, coming up next: a chapter on Dimitri and on Jim! Just how is our little Jimbo doing? :D_


	16. Edges Blurred and Boundaries Crossed

Antidote-

Paired Couple: Jim HawkinsXDimitri Sudayev/SLASH!/Lemon

_A/N: Treasure Planet belongs to Disney. Anastasia belongs to Fox Animation. Sinbad: Legend of the Seven Seas belongs to Dreamworks._

"WHAT DO YOU MEAN THE SHIP WON'T MOVE?"

"The fuel injectors were hit harder than we thought during the fight with _The Compass Blade_. I've been trying to fix this since then, thinking it wasn't going to be a big deal, but..."

"Apparently, it is." A sudden, deadly calm.

"Yes, Captain."

Sinbad tugged at his goatee. "So... what can we do about it? It's too quiet out there and I have a feeling that bastard of _The Compass _will be coming back for retribution, though as ill thought out as that will be on his part. We hit them pretty hard ourselves."

"Should take about... four days tops to initialize the final repairs."

"Four _days?_" He grabbed a fistful of Blain's shirt. "What are you?_ Incompetent?_"

The canid sputtered. "I-I can try to shave off a day!"

Sinbad shoved his crew member away, slightly in disgust. He sighed with an edge of sarcasm. "If that's all you can do..."

He left the engineering room with a stiff gait, heading towards the Cabin.

"Ganttus should have given us correspondence by now..." Mused Sinbad ten minutes later, his chin resting in his hands, as he sat at the head of the table in the Cabin.

"It seems he's been too preoccupied to respond to our signals." Kale responded.

"Well, hopefully he hasn't been found out and that he's been able to dispose of Ravengrail in time. Somehow I knew that cur wasn't to be trusted. Ganttus said he seemed to be too close to the Captain and his First Mate."

"Should I try to send the signal again?"

Sinbad leaned back in his chair and took off his hat to run his hands through his hair, thinking. "No... We'll wait. Perhaps he'll respond eventually, if he hasn't been detained or killed. Either way, we can't really depend on that feline now... If he doesn't respond to us in the next day or so, we'll safely assume that he's been discovered."

"So what happens if _The Compass _shows up, but Ganttus is alive and captured?"

"Take down the ship anyway."

"But our prisoner hasn't cracked yet... How'd we be able to take down the ship?"

Sinbad seemed to be getting impatient and stood up suddenly from his chair. Kale eyed him warily.

"I'd figure out a way." Sinbad growled. He sighed, coming to stand at the window at the back of the Cabin and stared out into the Etherium. "...I wish old Captain Hawkins were here; he'd crack that insolent fool down in the brig within an hour at most."

"You think he'd do that to his own son?" Kale queried, more out of pure curiosity than skepticism.

Sinbad looked back at Kale, his amber eyes taking on a strange look. "Just 'cause he's his son, I wouldn't put it past him to kill Jim for the information. Too bad Leland's gone..." He turned back to the window, shaking his head. "...makes one miss the crazy asshole..."

"Does young Hawkins know that his old man's dead?"

An odd smirk played across the Captain's lips. "Now why would I tell him that? Besides, it'd be just awkward, telling your prisoner that his dad's dead and..." He couldn't finish the thought.

"I know that you and Captain Hawkins were... close."

"Hmmm... So you knew that Leland and I were lovers, then?"

"We've been friends for many years, Sinbad. You didn't have to tell me anything for me to know about it."

"I see..." The Captain turned around, clearing his throat. "So now do you know why it'd be awkward?"

"I suppose you're right, Captain..." The First Mate kept an eye on Sinbad's reaction for what he was to say next. "If Hawkins cracks...?"

Sinbad walked back over to the table, not looking at him.

"I don't know."

"Captain?"

"Heh... The runt looks just like his father. It's crazy. But to dispose of him once he does crack... It'd be hard to, lookin' into those eyes of his..."

Kale settled a hand on Sinbad's shoulder in concern. "Would you spare him, then? Make him a part of the crew?"

Silence followed these words as they soaked into the moment. Sinbad walked away from his friend's comforting hand, opening the door to the Cabin.

"Where are you going?"

"To the brig. I'll oversee our prisoner's interrogation from now on."

~/~/~/~/~/

He paced the floorboards of his room, a bottle, half full of rum, dangling from a hand. His anxiety was overcoming a serious amount of his self-control. The room swam before his eyes, as he drank mouthful after mouthful of pain-numbing intoxication.

He was grim, overwhelmed, and bitter.

Dimitri flopped down on his feather mattress, kicking off his leather boots, wondering if Jim was even still alive. The thought tormented him; cut his insides to ribbons with grief.

It was only three days ago that Targon, Masterson, Doppler, and Engle had taken a small cruiser to Razboon in search of some fuel for the ship. As the four had headed out on their mission, the ship laid back in the shadow of a small, uninhabitable moon. And when Targon had sent out a signal to indicate that they'd be landing on Razboon only two days prior, the Galaxy Police vessel _RLS Legacy_, flanked with patrol cruisers, came out of nowhere in pursuit of the crew members he had sent out for the mission.

Just remembering their voices panicking through the comm, just before the signal was lost, made him infuriated... and full of regret. If none of those men were seen in the next three days, he'd have to bare his staggering losses and send more men to the planet to acquire the fuel instead.

He brought the neck of the bottle to his lips, choking down two large gulps of the harsh alcohol.

Suddenly, he stared at the bottle in his hand, as if he was made aware that he carried it for the first time. In disgust, he dropped the rum onto his bed side table and pushed himself up into a sitting position. Dimitri got up from the bed and strode over to the basin full of water over by the door. Splashing his face with cool water, he looked hard at his reflection in the mirror over the basin.

No! He wasn't going to drown himself in drink, thinking that all hope to saving his crew and Jim was obsolete!

Grabbing his boots and jamming them onto his feet, the Captain of _The Compass Blade_ strode out of his private chambers to oversee the final preparations for the attack that would befall _The Dark Serpent_, once his ship restocked on fuel. He had to trust that Targon and Doppler could manage on Razboon, just like he had to trust that Jim would survive his imprisonment on his enemy's ship.

"I'm coming for you, Jim."

~/~/~/~/~/~/

Jim found himself once again chained to the wall in his cell, but thankfully, he hadn't been whipped in a long while, which had allowed his wounds to start the healing process. Instead, that First Mate of Sinbad's had left him there to starve a couple of hours ago. His head swam with fatigue and hunger, but most of all, his throat was parched. If only he could somehow get out of these chains, he'd exact his revenge on his captors.

Although one plan of vengeance was as wild and feeble as the last, it kept him focused and from passing out. The second thing going on in his mind that kept him firmly resolute and unwilling to give in was his thoughts of Dimitri. He didn't allow himself to wallow in the pain and torture that he was put through. Jim knew that Dimitri would come back for him.

Let his soul be forever damned if he was wrong.

Just then, his attention was caught by steps heading down into the brig. Instead of Kale coming back to put him through more hell, it was Sinbad, his face an unreadable mask.

"Come to tell me more stories about my dear old dad, _Captain_?" He sneered as he tugged on his restraints.

Sinbad didn't rise to the bait. He simply unlocked the cell and stepped inside, closing the door behind him. He approached Jim, who held a mixture of murderous contempt and sarcasm upon his lips, and waited.

Finally, Sinbad spoke, his voice flat. "Your father's dead, you miserable whelp. Are you happy now?"

Jim lifted his chin in defiance, exposing his blood-encrusted neck, and smiled darkly. "_Somehow_... I don't believe you. Where is he hiding these days? Behind your skirts, _Captain_? It would only make sense for a gutless coward like him."

These words caught Sinbad off guard. During the times that they ever spoke about Leland, it sounded as if Jim was desperate to know about his dad, hoping against hope that he'd see him again. He never anticipated that Leland's own son would hold such venomous loathing toward him.

"Wait, let me guess... You're only his stand-in until he feels like facing the son he abandoned. In the meantime, he's pretending to be dead. Am I right?"

The Captain gritted his teeth, but he quickly regained his composure. He settled for a light chuckle.

"What's so funny?"

"You don't get it, do you Jim? Leland is dead."

"That's a lie." Jim's eyebrows furrowed into a sharp V.

"Is it? How are you so sure?"

The silence between them spoke volumes. Sinbad put only an inch between them now, getting up in Jim's face with triumph.

His smirk fell at the blink of an eye. "Leland is dead." He repeated. "So try all you want, but you'll never get the chance to pour out all of your pathetic loathing onto him. He was a cunning man, and a fearless Captain. That fact will remain true, and there's nothing you can do to change that."

Before he could leave the cell, Jim called out. "Wait!"

Sinbad turned back to him, glaring daggers.

"Why are you trying to change my view? What's it to you if I hate my dad?"

"Because I will not have you, someone that is less than the dirt under my boots, tarnish Captain Hawkins' memory."

Jim blinked, perturbed.

"What?"

"What happened to you calling him 'Leland'?"

Sinbad scoffed. "I don't know what you're talking about."

"Seems to me that you cared a great deal more than just stopping me from treading on my father's _legacy_."

Sinbad got back up in Jim's face again, slightly closer, gripping the front of his shirt in a tight fist. "Stubborn, aren't you? Something you and Leland seem to share."

Suddenly, his hardened glare softened. He loosened his hold. Looking into those eyes again, Sinbad did something unheard of, something that he knew that Kale-as his best friend-would reprimand him for. One word for what he did came to mind in the form of Kale's voice: _"Reckless."_

Sinbad kissed his dead lover's son.

~/~/~/~/~/~/

_A/N: Okay, so we didn't get to see whether Targon, Doppler, and the rest made it back to The Compass, but we did get a little insight on what's going on with Jim, Dimitri, and Sinbad. :D Shocking, no? :P R&R as always! _


	17. Twisted Reality and The Escape Escapade

Antidote-

Paired Couple: Jim HawkinsXDimitri Sudayev/SLASH!/Lemon

_A/N: Treasure Planet belongs to Disney. Anastasia belongs to Fox Animation. Sinbad: Legend of the Seven Seas belongs to Dreamworks._

Conig lifted himself out of his chair with a rush that Doppler didn't think the old cyborg could possess and ran toward a set of double doors that led farther into the complex. As blasts rocked chunks of ceiling to the ground, Masterson, Targon, and Doppler lowered their heads and followed Conig and his primetorian. As the doors were flung open and they vaulted through the passage beyond, Doppler spied several parts and whole pieces of solar surfers littering the floor.

It seemed odd... somehow...

Just then, a particularly large piece of wood and metal started to rain down over their heads. As Conig was leading them towards another room inside the hangar-towards what seemed to be a small escape pod-the chunk of ceiling came crashing down and hit the old man in the back of the head. As the debris cleared from the air for a moment, Delbert and the others could see that the old cyborg's neck was twisted at an odd angle.

The impact had killed him.

As Gishna started pulling frantically at her owner's hand, starting to wail obscenely as fat tears rolled down her cheeks, Doppler scooped her up in his arms and they proceeded to the small craft.

Out of the corner of Targon's eye, he spotted several fifty gallon tanks on the far side of the room.

"Masterson! Doppler! Here's our cargo!" He said with a mischievous smile. He limped over to the tanks and tossed two tanks to Masterson. "Doppler, get the ship ready to take off!"

"What? I don't know how to drive-"

"_Go to the right! The right!" Yelled a panic-stricken, female felinoid in a regal captain's uniform._  
>"<em>I know, I know! Will you just let me drive?" <em>  
>The vague images swam before his eyes and disappeared within an instant. Holding Gishna tight in his arms, the astrophysicist ran toward the small, gray roundish craft with large angular windows, pulling on the heavy steel handle to the door on the side. He didn't have time to analyze what had just happened, but somehow, the small flashback-if that's what it was-gave him the clues to know how to operate the small craft. The buttons felt familiar on the dash board than those of what he assumed was a memory.<br>He pulled on the black lever, jammed his fingers onto a small control panel full of identical red buttons, and pressed his thumb onto a giant green button.  
>The engine rumbled to life.<br>Meanwhile, Masterson carried two tanks under his wings, while Targon limped as fast as he could to the escape pod with three tanks, making the trip slightly harder as he dodged chunks of hardware and ceiling falling from the blasts.  
>"Again, this is Captain Amelia of the Galaxy Police! Surrender now, or we'll reduce your hideout to cinders! We know you're in there! Escape and we'll shoot to kill!"<br>"Not giving us much choice, is she?" Masterson called over the cacophony.  
>The voice of this Captain Amelia gave Delbert the shivers... Her voice was eerily like the one in his vision.<br>As soon as the other two got into the craft, Doppler pulled back on the toggle and lifted them up into the air. Just in luck, a particularly hard impact took out the large metal door.  
>It was late in the evening, but with floodlights streaming on the hangar compound from the ships and fire sprouting along the other side of the building, one would think it was only early morning. As soon as they cleared the door, the building gave a metallic groan and crashed to its foundations.<br>Ten of the smaller vessels of the Galaxy Police tailed them from the wreckage.  
>Targon climbed into the passenger seat in the front and hit a switch to open the side view window, his pistol in hand.<br>"Let's see how these fools handle the likes of me!"

He fell back against the cold metal bars of the cell, sporting a torn lower lip and wide, unbelieving eyes. Jim stood defiantly, the kiss having shocked him so badly, that he did the only thing he could think of-ripping a chunk out of the captain's lip to make him stop. Jim knew that if he hadn't done what he did, Sinbad would have continued with this course of action. He wouldn't be raped, if he could help it.  
>Sinbad stood up, his face cast into shadow. Instead of anger, a stream of curses, an outburst of violence, anything that would indicate his disapproval at being rejected, Jim's gut twisted sickeningly. <em>The sick, masochistic bastard was laughing!<em>  
>"Oh, Jim. You really think that's going to stop me?" His eyes glittered strangely, flashing crimson before settling back to hazel, in the dim light of the flickering lamp. He touched the wound on his lip with his thumb as we walked back over, looking the blood over as if deciding whether or not to felicitate him for the defiant action. He laughed again. "I will say this: I don't enjoy it as much if there's little struggling involved. If you can leave a bruise or two, the happier I am. To draw blood only makes me crave it more..." He lifted an eyebrow suggestively.<br>Something was just wrong. From his way of speech, to his actions, and down to his sudden shift in personality. Something changed-or at least, Jim believed so.  
>Seizing Jim's chin roughly with a vice-like grip of his fingers, he came so close to his captive's ear to whisper in it, chilling the young man to the core.<br>"_Fear is a delicious aphrodisiac, after all... and you look so much like him..."_  
>Letting his chin go, Jim struggled against his bonds, fury and desperation pounding in his veins-a chaser to a cocktail of disaster. Sinbad continued to chuckle sinisterly, watching him wrestle with his restraints. After a moment, he pulled out a wide metal ring from his sash and spun it on one finger, a couple of feet away from Jim, the keys tinkling a merry tune in contrast to the quickly darkening scene. Jim's heart almost gave out with paralyzed cravenness as he stared at the innocent jumble of metal.<br>"Let's make this night a little bit more interesting, shall we, Hawkins?"  
>He undid the lock that held the cuffs attached to the chain on his feet first, then his hands. Jim was in no condition to fight, but at least tried.<br>After kicking, squirming, and biting, Jim found his back against the floor, heart thumping crazy. His tattered shirt was thrown aside. Oddly, he heard the metallic click of a key turning in a rusted lock. He found that his hands and ankles were free.  
>"I just like a challenge, don't you?"<br>"WHAT THE HELL-"  
>A well-placed punch landed in his gut, making him double over. His skin started to coat with cold sweat. Blood seeped out from between his teeth, having bitten his tongue during the impact. He got up on all four trembling limbs, but hands seized his hips roughly and pulled him up against the captain. He jumped; tried scampering away. He only received his pants being jerked off his weakened body for the effort, his head shoved against the floor.<br>Sinbad just smiled wickedly, inducing a new form of torture on his prisoner.

The chase was on.  
>Doppler took control of the wheel, dodging out of the line of fire, as the crazy crustacean open-fired with his blaster at their pursuers. Meanwhile, Masterson kept the tanks from rolling around in the back, harnessing them against the side wall with a bit of rope he chanced upon. Gishna only continued with her shrieks of anguish, missing her deceased owner.<br>After what felt like hours of rounding tight corners and gunning the engine to its maximum, while Targon kept a steady stream of attack-managing to take out two of the enemy cruisers in the process-Doppler, with some assistance from the harrowed Masterson, managed to come upon the location of their hidden transport.  
>As the canid came upon the building, however, his heart sank.<br>The building resembled nothing more than a burning skeletal frame of metal. Amongst the flames, he thought he could make out the charred body of Engle, still sitting in the ruined cruiser. The tiger-striped felinoid was clearly dead. Unable to do anything about it, he continued on with their course, their escape pod still tailed by the other eight heavily armed cruisers.  
>Just as he was about to take a left-hand turn, Targon pulled himself inside the craft. "I've got an idea on how to get rid of these scumbags!" He declared with a savage grin, pincers clicking with delight. "Doc, when I give the word, you're going to take us starboard as sharp as you can, but keep us steadily towards the port side before you do! In the meantime, Masterson and I are going to give them one hell of a ride!" With that said, Targon headed towards the back of the escape pod in preparation.<br>Delbert looked over his shoulder in confusion, wondering what the First Mate had in mind. His jaw dropped, gasping like a fish out of water.  
>"<em>ARE YOU MAD?"<em>  
>"If I'm not, this probably won't work!"<br>Ten minutes later, the eight cruisers continued to follow them in hot pursuit as they tried many ways to stop or corner the fugitives. The sides of the escape pod were dented and the left hand window was shattered, but otherwise, the vessel was still intact. They knew that, eventually, they'd hit a vital spot on the vessel and end the chase.  
>From their point of view, it seemed like the escape pod was looking to go left. A signal was made amongst the cruisers and half of them split off from the group, going back to quickly circle around and hopefully capture the vagabonds.<br>The galaxy police officers couldn't predict what was about to happen next.  
>"NOW!"<br>Doppler, his gut clenching in fear but having no other alternative, jerked the wheel to the right, barely skimming the corner of a deserted, walled-off ship yard. The back hatch to the pod burst open, with Targon's help, and both he and Masterson tossed out the fifth tank of fuel at the oncoming vehicles from the left path and behind them. As it flew into the air, end over end, Masterson and Targon pulled out their blasters and took careful aim.  
>"HIT THE TURBO, DOC!"<br>The escape pod sped up considerably. And as the tank and the galaxy police vessels quickly fell behind, the blasts peppered the metal shell of the fuel tank with metallic thuds. Only one lucky shot, fired by Targon, hit its mark.  
>The explosion was unlike any other!<br>A quaking blast shook the surrounding area, engulfing the eight cruisers in an inferno. As each individual vessel caught fire, they too exploded with a jarring force, one by one like a line of firecrackers-except thousands of times stronger. The heat could still be felt, even though Doppler had maneuvered them about three blocks away in record time.  
>"Close the hatch!" The astrophysicist screamed over the deafening roar, feeling as if his skin would melt off if he were exposed to the colossal heat wave any longer.<br>Masterson closed it with an audible _bang_, his feathers glistening with sweat as he slid down to the floor with exhaustion.  
>For many moments, no one said a word.<br>"WHOO! That sure was fun!" Targon laughed triumphantly, also sinking to the floor.  
>"You may think so!" Doppler replied indignantly, noticing for the first time how bad his hands were shaking on the wheel. "We could have <em>died<em>, if you must know!"  
>"Oh come now, my dear Doppler," Masterson said with a jovial laugh. "It wasn't all bad! Without the threat of death every now and then, where would be the sport in what we do? What thrill would there be had?"<br>"Need I remind you that we lost Engle on this hair-brained mission?" Doppler growled.  
>The silence that pervaded the small cabin, save the whimpers of the primetorian, made the astrophysicist think it an unwise thing to say. He feared the worst, until-<br>"...You're right, Doc." Said Targon somberly. "This ain't no laughing matter. We have indeed lost a valuable crew member tonight. The Captain ain't gonna like this." He shuffled to the front of the escape pod.  
>"Allow me to take the wheel, Doc. You've earned your rest."<br>From there, the three pirates and the primetorian made their way back out of Razboon's atmosphere and towards the awaiting _Compass Blade_.

_A/N: Now how's _that_ for action? :D The crew, as well as Dimitri, are on their way to exact revenge on Sinbad's ship, as well as coming to Jim's aid! What more exciting surprises await them all? Stay tuned; this is the turning point you've all been waiting for—Next chapter!_


	18. Final Showdown?

Antidote-

Paired Couple: Jim HawkinsXDimitri Sudayev/SLASH!/Lemon

_A/N: Treasure Planet belongs to Disney. Anastasia belongs to Fox Animation. Sinbad: Legend of the Seven Seas belongs to Dreamworks._

"...and that's where we ended up back here, Captain."

"It's a shame that Engle had perished on the voyage. He was an extraordinary crew member."

Dimitri stood in front of the charting table, having been listening intently to Targon's retelling of events of what happened back on Razboon. Something, however, plagued his mind.

"So you say that the G.P. had been following you since you got close to the atmosphere?"

"Correct, Captain."

"Hmmm..." Dimitri looked down at the maps and charts on the table, lost in thought. "I wonder who tipped them off..."

"Sir?"

"I have a feeling that the G.P.'s presence wasn't just mere coincidence." He looked up. "But no matter, I suppose; we must put our next move into action."

"What is our next move, Captain?"

"Let me talk to Masterson really quick and see how much time we have before we face _The Dark Serpent_ again."

As he left the Cabin, heading toward the wheel of the ship, Targon and Doppler followed in his wake.

"How long do we have before we reach the other ship?" Dimitri asked of Masterson, who kept a steady hold of the wheel.

"About an hour, sir. With as much fuel as we brought back, we have enough to keep us steady for a few months, so long as we don't use any turbo boosts."

"Excellent. Stop the ship here."

Masterson surveyed him over his shoulder in confusion."Captain?"

Dimitri smiled roguishly, his blood shot, sleepless eyes already giving him an intimidating, crazed look.

"I've got one more trick up my sleeve, mates."

He indicated for the other two to follow him as he made his way down to the brig.

As Targon and Doppler made their way down the steps, they could distinctly hear the determined rattling of cell bars and a cascade of their captain's laughter. A moment later, they saw Ganttus glaring from his cell, gripping the iron bars, as Dimitri stood passively in front of him, a smirk crossing his lips.

"Get me outta this stinkin' hole, if ya know what's good fer ya!" The felinoid raged.

"And nice to see you again, you miserable, back-stabbing cretin." The First Mate greeted Ganttus, as he took his place next to his Captain.

"That's the politest thing I've ever heard you say to a traitor, Targon!" Dimitri said conversationally, flashing a more gentle smile at his second in command. "I'm surprised at you!"

Targon shrugged, adding, "He deserves worse, you know. Like getting that awful mug of his shaved off with my rapier for taking my leg."

"That's the Targon I know!"

"Whatcha want from me? Come here ta gloat?" Ganttus yelled, his nostrils flaring as his ears flattened against his head.

"Actually..." Dimitri suddenly seized the back of the felinoid's head from in between the bars of his cell and rammed his face into the iron, satisfied to hear a distinct _crunch_ as Ganttus' nose broke and seeing blood seeping down his fur.

"WHAT THE FUCK? YA JUS' BLOODY BROKE MY NOSE, YA ASSHOLE!" Ganttus struggled against Dimitri's hold on the back of his head-which the Captain pressed against the iron a little tighter, savoring the pain he was causing. "YOU'LL PAY FER DAT!"

"Just making sure that you're paying attention. Now listen closely: I want a favor from you, and saying 'no' is a bad idea on your part."

Delbert, who felt completely in agreement to Ganttus deserving what came to him, could only shudder at the quiet thunder in Dimitri's voice. He had never heard him sound so deadly before...

After spouting several dozen profanities, the felinoid cried out in pain as Dimitri rubbed his broken nose against the bar.

Panting heavily, Ganttus finally replied savagely. "What's in it fer me then?"

"Not dying."

Dimitri looked over his shoulder, eyebrows raised. Doppler stood with his gun aimed at Ganttus, a hardness overwhelming his eyes. Dimitri knew that the canid meant what he said.

"Geez, Doc! You're becoming more of a pirate everyday rather than an astrophysicist!" Dimitri laughed, surprise alighting his emerald eyes.

"This cat has pissed me off for the last time!"

Dimitri turned back to the felinoid, letting the back of his head go, smug. "Up to you, Ganttus: you either help us, or deal with this psycho over here!"

At those words, Doppler growled, baring his canines in a savage snarl.

"OKAY OKAY! JUST DON'T LET HIM SHOOT ME!" At this, Dimitri nodded to the astrophysicist, who lowered the weapon, albeit with hesitancy. The felinoid cackled, now thinking that Doppler was too spineless to actually do anything.

"I just don't wanna give him the satisfaction."

Several things happened at once.

Doppler raised the blaster again, this time cocking back the hammer, ready to blast the insufferable traitor through the head at a moment's notice, while Targon and Dimitri struggled to restrain their crew mate. In the meantime, Ganttus gave a yelp of fear and ducked as a blast managed to shoot from the blaster, ricocheting off the back wall of the cell, to fade into nothingness.

"OKAY OKAY _OKAY!_ I was just teasin'!"

As soon as the gun fired, it seemed to calm everyone else down. Doppler still gave the feline a nasty look, but allowed Targon to take the weapon from him and switch on the safety mechanism.

"Twitchy li'l fella, isn't he?" The Captain grinned as he patted Doppler's shoulder in a reassuring way.

"So," Targon began conversationally. "What did Ganttus do to _you_, Doc?"

Still glaring, he replied, "He always told me that felinoids were the far more superior race than canids... said I had the brains of a poodle... He also said I drool in my sleep."

"...Really? That's what pissed you off?"

"He also threatened to kill me on several occasions."

"I see..." said Dimitri, his smile never faltering. "Well then, Ganttus, you're definitely not going to like what I have in mind..."

Ganttus didn't speak any retorts; the Captain continued.

"I need you to send correspondence to your true Captain. Tell him that you have succeeded in capturing _The Compass_."

"Dimit-Captain?" replied a confused Doppler.

"Then, I want you to take lead of the wheel. No exceptions; you get your life in return instead of having your guts being used to tie down the solar sails, like you deserve."

"...Never."

The brunette sighed, as if he had anticipated this answer. "Well, in that case, I guess Targon and Doppler will have a good time chasing you around the brig, using you as their moving target. And when they're tired of that, Doppler can use you as a chew toy to his heart's content." His tone became flat, monotone. "You have five seconds to reconsider your position at this point."

Ganttus' ears went back, looking between the three of them with his one savage eye.

~/~/~/~/~/~/

...He refused to take any of this lying down, beaten and whipped like a slave to an unrelenting master...

...He wasn't going to be _his_ play thing...

...He wasn't going to be used this way; tortured in this sick game of rape...

Jim kicked out at Sinbad with a broken yell that crashed around them. Hearing the impact of his foot connecting with vulnerable flesh, Jim scrambled up from the floor as fast as he could and searched the dark floor boards for the keys to his cell while the Captain howled with pain.

Catching a glint of metal sparkling from the ray of the electrical lamp, he snatched it up and started jamming keys into the lock, hoping that one would fit before his captor got back up.

Just as a key made the thankful rasp of tumblers clicking, he felt callused hands seize his neck and shoulders back into the cell. The keys fell to the floor-a metaphor of his last hope.

"I sure hope you enjoyed putting me in pain, 'cause you won't be so lucky again, Jim." Sinbad whispered as he locked him up in the manacles that were laying on the floor.

Jim turned his head, his bruises and other injuries being thrown into relief by the light, and gave him a twisted smile. "I thought you liked pain."

"Only when I have the upper hand. You're tougher than I thought, I will give you that."

Now that Jim was completely exposed to him, Sinbad raked his eyes over his prey hungrily. Now, nothing would stop him from taking what he wanted. Just as he was about to inflict the first dose of his sadistic torture, a voice sounded down the stairs of the brig.

"Captain! There's a message coming in from _The Compass Blade_!" came the urgent cry of his First Mate.

Sinbad growled. "_The Compass_?"

Jim's eyes widened, his mask of dark humor slipping off in shock. _Dimitri...?_

The Captain looked back down at him, smiling wolfishly. "Looks like we'll hold off on our date for a bit longer, won't we?" He picked himself up from the floor and put on his own discarded clothes, while Jim fumbled to put on his pants with the heavy manacles cutting into his wrists.

Sinbad grabbed Jim up and shoved him out of the cell once they were properly dressed, or half-dressed in Jim's case, heading towards the deck above.

~/~/~/~/

"_I've taken capture of the ship, Cap'n. Everyone here has surrendered." _Ganttus reported a little later through the intercom in the control room of the ship.

Jim's blood chilled to ice in his veins; his heart stopped. _What's going on..?_

"Excellent!" Sinbad grinned with triumph. "For a minute there I was beginning to worry!"

"_It wasn't hard to overcome them in their sleep."_

"And Captain Sudayev?"

Jim strained his ears, hoping desperately that Dimitri was okay. If he wasn't-he couldn't bear the thought… He stood still and listened with purpose. This was the moment that would make him fight for survival, or break him entirely from the soul outwards.

"_Still alive, jus' like you want him to be. He put up a good fight, bu' as soon as he's at your feet… he won' last long. I know that you want him alive so you could have de pleasure in killin' him. Sorry state he's in right now." _Ganttus rumbled with a laugh.

Jim swore it was empty of humor, but no one seemed to have noticed it. Even then, he only took a small note of it; he was struggling in Kale's grip, fear gripping him.

"What of his First Mate?"

"…_Slain, as well as with that nosy astrophysicist._"

"NO!" Jim began struggling hard, his heart plummeting with guilt and overwhelming sadness.

It had been his fault that Doppler had been dragged into this. He had paid for Jim's stubbornness; Jim's stupidity. His body seemed to go numb with the knowledge that the innocent astrophysicist was gone.

"That'll help matters. How far away are you, Ganttus?"

"_About a good five hours away, Cap'n. There's a galaxy police vessel in the area__, so I don't think it'd be a good idea fer ya to come to me._"

"Point taken." Sinbad agreed. "I'll send you the coordinates of where we are. And then," he looked back at Jim with a predatory smile. "I'll take my rightful vengeance on the Captain. Report back if there's any difficulties on the return trip."

"_Aye, sir."_ The signal ended.

~/~/~/~/~/~/

"Yer gonna pay fer dis, Sudayev!" Ganttus yelled in outrage from the brig as Targon snapped the door shut.

"Annoying feline." The crustacean grinned, shaking his head. "Now what, Captain?"

"We go to the ship, of course. We get there, rescue Hawkins, and kill every last one of them on board." Dimitri stated simply.

Delbert walked over, a paper covered in coordinates and notes by his hand, asked, "You think it's going to be this easy?"

"Why wouldn't it? Captain Sinbad just took the bait."

"I just don't like how easy that was, that's all. From what you told us, this Sinbad is cunning. He shouldn't be this easy to fool."

"Don't worry about the details, Doc. I'll be orchestrating this whole farce and we'll have hit two _Orcus Galacticus_ with one stone." The Captain grinned with assurance that his lover would be returned to him unharmed. "Now, if you don't mind, I'm going to get the crew up to speed with what we're going to be doing to pull this off."

~/~/~/~/~/

Four hours and fifty minutes later, Sinbad, Kale, and Jim stood upon the deck of _The Dark Serpent_, watching the approach of _The Compass Blade_ grow closer. Sinbad and Kale looked out into the Etherium with determined eyes, while Jim stood by, feeling sick to his stomach.

It couldn't be true… Dimitri couldn't have been overtaken…

The answer came to him in the form of Ganttus gripping the wheel of the ship. A fellow traitor held a blaster to the back of Dimitri's head, his hands bound in ropes, on his knees and his head bowed in defeat.

"NOOOOOOOOOO!"

Several of the crew were also bound and gagged in a similar fashion, with gunmen trained on them, or else lying face down on the deck, marking them as dead.

He sank to his knees, weakened by the sight in front of him.

What could he do? Dimitri was a prisoner, soon to be dead, just like him. Was this the end for all of them?

He didn't even register Kale roughly jerking him back onto his feet and shoving him forward, nor did he notice that the two ships were then connected by planks so that they could cross over. He could hardly pay attention as he walked over the planks, Sinbad leading and Kale following behind him.

All that time, he kept his eyes on Dimitri.

It was then that Dimitri looked up at him, green eyes locking with brown. A cloth was tied over his mouth, but Jim didn't need to hear the words that he knew his love would speak. The hunger, the need… the apology…

"Look closely, Hawkins. This is what happens when people tangle with _The Serpent_." Sinbad called back to him. He turned back to Ganttus, who stood stiffly by the wheel. "Good work, Ganttus. You did well."

The feline's eyes flicked over to Dimitri, then back to his Captain, not saying anything. He nodded.

"Now, do share the secret with me, old friend: how did you manage to capture the ship?"

"He didn't."

Shock barely coursed through Jim as he watched Dimitri spit out his gag and drop his supposed restraints. He locked his fingers on the blaster that had been hiding between his knees.

The rest of the ship responded. As Dimitri knocked the butt of his gun into the head of the traitor that had been holding an empty blaster to him, those that had looked dead jumped up from their positions and knocked out Ganttus' accomplices. It was then that Jim had realized something he didn't before-the traitors' hands had been bound, all of them holding empty guns. Their "captives" had been training guns on them the entire time.

Ganttus' lack of humor over the com now made sense. He was threatened into this.

He smiled, exulted. Trust his Dimitri to be creative.

Out of the Cabin's door, Doppler ran past the threshold , followed by a limping Targon, both carrying guns of their own.

"Doc?" Jim yelled in confusion. "Targon?"

Doppler spotted Jim through the conflicting, fighting masses of people and rushed to his side.

"How-what-?"

"Don't worry about it, Jim. Just know that if it wasn't for Dimitri, we wouldn't have been able to get this far." He took a lock pick from his coat and began undoing Jim's manacles. "He's been hell bent on getting you back since you were captured."

The heavy iron fell to the deck with a _clunk_.

"Thanks, Doc." Jim headed towards the last place that he saw Dimitri and Sinbad to have been.

A hand tugged him back. "Jim, no! You're in no condition to fight!"

"Don't tell me what I can and can't do! Dimitri needs my help!" He slipped out of Doppler's hold and ran through the madness.

Ten minutes later, he spotted the two that he sought, seeing both men facing off with clashing swords at the stern.

Jim became mesmerized with the scene unfolding before him.

Dimitri had sustained some shallow wounds on one shoulder, both forearms, and a nick that got him along his cheek bone, right under his left eye. He parried a double blow to his right side with his sword, while Sinbad countered with two scimitars arcing down toward his legs. Dimitri jumped over them with little difficulty. Another _clang_, and the two were locked by the hilts of only two swords, one of Sinbad's scimitars having fallen out of his hand…

With a snarl, _The Serpent_'s captain jumped back from the confrontation and then charged back in with fury. Jim snapped his head up as he heard a triumphant laugh. Sinbad had managed to knock Dimitri onto his back, his remaining sword slicing down at Dimitri's exposed neck.

Sinbad screamed in frustration, almost seeing red. Jim Hawkins stood over his adversary, holding his other scimitar in confident hands, having blocked the fatal blow.

"You will not touch him!" Jim snarled, his canines flashing savagely.

Dimitri's eyes widened at the sight of his lover. "No, Jim! Stand down!"

"NO WAY! I'M GOING TO MAKE HIM PAY FOR ALL OF THIS!" Jim charged at Sinbad; both of them locked in a furious stalemate as their weapons glanced off each other's with a metallic ring.

"THIS IS AN ORDER, HAWKINS!" Dimitri bellowed, terrified of possible outcomes. "_STAND. THE. _FUCK_. DOWN!_"

"TO HELL WITH YOUR ORDERS! I'M NOT GOING TO LOSE YOU!" He charged again at his enemy, his mind solely concentrated on killing.

Suddenly, Dimitri looked up as he heard a loud groan overhead. The sight nearly stopped his heart. One of the main masts was coming down, on fire, and ready to engulf the stern with its colossal weight and destruction. Clutching a wounded arm covered in blood, Dimitri ran as fast as he could towards the combatants.

"JIM! RUUUUUUUN!"

~/~/~/~/~/

He hardly registered anything going on around him, but when he heard the terrified shout tear from Dimitri's throat, he saw the problem right away.

A burning inferno was moments away from crushing Jim and Sinbad. Sinbad, taking notice of the impending doom, rolled out of the way. Jim ran as fast as he could towards Dimitri's outstretched hand.

With a resounding crash, Jim was immediately separated from Dimitri behind a wall of angry flames. On the opposite end of the fallen mast, Jim made out the shadow of Sinbad heading slowly towards him, still clutching his sword.

Sinbad's right eye was bruised and swollen shut, blood trickled from a corner of his mouth, and he limped from a badly sprained ankle. The opposite of his sword arm clutched his cracked ribs. His clothes were badly singed and streaked with ash. But the thin line of his mouth only contorted with rage.

"You'll pay for this, Jim. I swear it on my grave."

Before they could go back into their fight, a voice resounded throughout what seemed to be the entirety of the Etherium, silencing the sounds of battle; the very fire that hungrily devoured the ship.

"This is Captain Amelia of the _RLS Legacy_! Surrender yourselves now, or we'll open fire!"

Looking up, Jim and Sinbad spotted the ship, flanked by what seemed to be millions of Galaxy Police vessels. They both knew that every one of their guns were at the ready to fire down at them.

Hearing blasters and swords fall to the deck, despite the roar of the flames, Jim and Sinbad dropped their weapons and held their hands up. As they watched, several Galaxy Police vessels zoomed their way down to the ship.

It all happened in a blur.

One of the vessels circled down low to the fire and jets of water streamed down on top of it, squelching the flames into wet ashes. The main mast was a charred log. Other vessels landed next to the ship and several policemen landed among the pirates, taking them hostage.

Ten of them jumped over the fallen mast and grabbed a hold of Jim and Sinbad, blasters trained on them, as they dragged them away from the ship. Jim looked around and saw Dimitri being carted off as well, ashes streaking his face. They locked gazes for a moment, a heartbeat, a lifetime… He didn't see him again when they converged into the crowd of captured pirates and policemen.

Jim was shoved into a vessel with three other pirates. Whether they were a part of his crew mates, he didn't know. He was hollow inside.

What would happen to them now?

~/~/~/~/

_A/N: __I know it's been a while since I've updated. I hope I didn't keep you waiting for too long… Hope you enjoy this segment, as this took me forever to map out. Next segment will finally reveal all that is going on! R&R as always!_


	19. A Walk Down Memory Lane

Antidote-

Paired Couple: Jim HawkinsXDimitri Sudayev/SLASH!/Lemon

_A/N: Treasure Planet belongs to Disney. Anastasia belongs to Fox Animation. Sinbad: Legend of the Seven Seas belongs to Dreamworks. And now, seriously this time, the moment you've all been waiting for..._

Incoherent shouts, exclamations, manacles, gun barrels, the stench of unwashed bodies, iron bars.

If anyone had told Jim that this was what was going to happen to him three years after Dimitri left to Tyranisernum, he would have said they were crazy.

Pirates grumbled in their cells while the G.P. force patrolled the brig with calculated speculation, pausing in between rounds to hit a belligerent vagabond in the gut with a crackling, electrical prod with no mercy. The acrid smell of burnt flesh and hair added to the already unsanitary atmosphere.

Jim sat on the floor, sharing his overcrowded cell with Kale, Masterson, Helus, two other pirates from Sinbad's ship, and Gishna. The primetorian, who had swelled twice her normal size and had her crimson quills jutting out dangerously from her plum-colored fur, cried morosely in the clear imitation of a human child in distress in her corner of the cell. The shrieking sobs from the creature set Jim's teeth on edge.

Doppler, who shared an adjoining cell with Sinbad, Targon, and Blain, reached through the bars and tried his best to comfort the primetorian. "Shh... shh... It's going to be okay, Gishna..."

"I can't believe it's come to this..."

Jim looked across the hall at the cell opposite of his, identifying the speaker as Dimitri.

Dimitri clung to the bars of his cell, sharing it with five other pirates that Jim didn't recognize, holding onto the cold iron while his forehead pressed against one, defeated. It was the first time they had been able to truly see each other in days. Jim took note of the unshaven stubble on his chin, the weary look in his blood shot emerald eyes, the gaunt expression haunting his features, his dirty brunette hair, and the dried blood and ashes that were smeared over every inch of him.

Jim couldn't help but feel defeated in return, aching deeply to see the resignation weighing heavily on Dimitri's shoulders.

He put his arm through the bars of his cell and reached across that distance to just merely touch him.

Dimitri looked up, his smile never reaching his crestfallen eyes. He stretched his hand out through the cold cage, not caring about who would see, because it didn't matter.

Their fingertips barely connected. It was all the two could have hoped for.

Looking deeply into each others eyes, they said all they wished to say through that one glance without breathing a word.

Even as the universe as they knew it fell around them in tatters, Jim and Dimitri silently vowed to see it through, together...

"Stand at attention!" Came a derisive command from above.

At the sound of the sharp, emotionless call, the guards in the brig quickly ran to their stations, holding their guns tightly in front of them in a stance that suggested someone important was arriving.

Suddenly, the door to the brig opened wide and a very small assembly marched down the stairs, their silhouettes coming into focus as they walked into the artificial light. Two of the three that marched in military procession were humans, one male and one female. The male carried a blaster in his hands, always on alert if anything should happen to the person that lead the procession. The female human held a long piece of paper and a fountain pen in her hands, ready to write down anything.

Leading the procession was a female felinoid, with a demure, hourglass figure and a beautifully sculpted face. She held a cunning air, her tri-cornered blue and gold hat marking her as the captain of the ship. Light blue eyes roved the brig with mild interest, her short red hair giving her a sophisticated, military look. Her coat was also blue, with gold trim and buttons, overlapping her beige slacks and knee high black boots.

A familiar chord struck in Jim's consciousness, teasing him with barely a hint at who she might be. Although he deduced that this must be the face behind the voice of Captain Amelia that had called into the Etherium earlier during the battle of the two pirate ships, he couldn't help but feel as if he met her somewhere before.

For a moment, as she scanned the crowd of pirates in her brig, her eyes rested on Jim for a couple of seconds longer than the rest. But as soon as she let her vision rest upon Doppler, her ears drooped for a fraction of a second, and kept a longer sight upon the astrophysicist than she had on Jim. The action was odd to witness, but it melted away in a matter of seconds to a cold, empty drawl.

"I am Captain Amelia of the _RLS Legacy_, honorary Galaxy Police Officer of Quadrant Six-Six-Zero. You have all violated numerous articles of the Etherium Codes of Conduct of Intergalactic Species, with the full awareness to engage in acts of piracy, murder, vandalism, kidnapping, and looting. You all have lost rights to a fair trial, as well as plea bargains and personal testimonies." She looked over at Jim, and then to Doppler, for milliseconds at a time, before continuing. "Your sorry fates all rest in the hands of the Galaxy Police. May whatever gods be watching have mercy on you all."

The brig erupted in jeers, angry retorts, and death threats as she was making her way back up the stairs to the upper deck.

Amongst the yelling and crude remarks, Jim heard a voice call out in outrage and disbelief.

"YOU LYING FUCKING _CUNT_! ONCE I GET MY HANDS ON YOU, I'LL RIP YOUR TONGUE OUT!"

Jim looked over to see Sinbad standing there, gripping the bars of his cell with rapidly whitening knuckles, the look of pure rage storming in his eyes. Although during his captivity with the Captain of _Th__e Dark Serpent_, he had not once seen Sinbad lose his temper like this. Usually, he held a calm demeanor. If he was angry, he only showed it by the narrowing of his eyes and his lips becoming hard lines just before he'd yell.

This wasn't just a yell of anger; it was as if he were going to foam at the mouth and take a chunk out of someone's face, if given the chance.

Amelia stopped on the forth step and turned around, ears pricked up with interest. She turned around as the two officers that had been following her made room for her to pass them back downstairs. The felinoid stopped in front of Sinbad's cell, a smile suddenly coming upon her face.

"Ah yes. I almost forgot about you. Do accept my sincerest apologies." The sarcasm wasn't lost to anyone.

"WE HAD A DEAL!"

"Yes, we did. But, you see, I only agreed to letting you go that one time, so long as you delivered Captain Sudayev of _The Compass Blade _to the Galaxy Police. If we were to, ah, cross paths again, I'd have no choice but to take you into custody."

"WE WOULD EVENTUALLY HAVE TO CROSS PATHS IF I WERE TO DELIVER SUDAYEV TO YOU ANYWAY!"

"And that was my plan."

Just as the irate captain of _The Serpent _went to take a fist to her through the bars, the male human with the gun pulled out an electrical rod from his belt and jabbed it into Sinbad's gut. His screams cut through the air, rendering the rest of the brig deathly quiet. He slumped forward against the bars of the cell, breathing heavily, smoke trailing off of him from the burn mark on his shirt.

"Just to make sure you would follow your command that I charged you with, Captain Sinbad, I had a small impulse chip injected into the back of your head." She stated, her claws raking through his lank hair and digging through a centimeter of skin to pull out a blinking metal chip. "That way, I could make sure you were doing as you were told. You agreed to capturing Sudayev, so I had this implanted while you were out cold in my captivity." She pocketed the chip.

Looking up at her with undiluted rage, he quietly spat. "You had _that thing_ planted into me?"

"I knew your revenge against _The Compass_ would deter you from your promise, so I had to have some way to ensure you'd keep your end of the bargain. And it looks like I was right in doing so. You almost had succeeded in getting your way and destroying that ship. But you were going to keep one little consolation prize as well…"

Her blue eyes locked onto Jim, drawing everyone's attention onto him.

Amelia turned back to Sinbad and hissed so quietly, that Jim had to strain his ears to hear the next words. "Reminiscing, were we?"

"Fuck you!" He whispered savagely.

She ignored him. "I don't suppose Leland would have appreciated you toying with his son, would he?"

"I don't know what you're talking about."

"I had your ship bugged, Captain. You should have known I'd know about it somehow."

"I DON'T KNOW WHAT THE FUCK YOU'RE TALKING ABOUT! I WOULD NEVER-"

"Never what? Rape me? You're a fucking liar; you almost did!"

Dimitri turned to Jim, eyes widened. Jim stood now, his fists balled at his sides, fury pouring from him in waves.

"HE DID _WHAT_?" Dimitri stood up from the floor as well.

"I _never _touched you in that way! I only wanted the information on destroying Sudayev's ship and take my revenge!" Sinbad retorted, turning an icy glare on Jim. "I would have never betrayed your father's memory!"

Jim snorted, cynicism twisting his features. "Yea, I'd like to believe you. But somehow I can't, since I still have that image of you on top of me burned into my mind!"

Sinbad stood there, silent, as he thought hard about all that was said. Suddenly, a look of comprehension overcame him, as he turned to Amelia. "You!"

Amelia, who had stood by and watched the shouting match between Jim and Sinbad, looked clearly baffled.

"That chip! You've been controlling me; making me do things that I'm not aware of!"

"Well, of course. How else was I supposed to make sure you'd get Sudayev here-"

"So you have other pirates do unspeakable things to each other, just to get what you want?" Dimitri interrupted as his lips curled in disgust. "Does corruption amongst the G.P. run that deep?"

This time, she in turn became furious, hackles raised. "How dare you! I never did such a thing!"

Dimitri, who could sense a lie in anyone because of his prior occupation, nodded his head. She was telling the truth. He'd have to figure out who might have controlled Sinbad later. In the meantime…

"Why do you want me here?"

"We're rounding up pirates such as yourselves in an effort to rid the Etherium of your existence. You have terrorized innocent citizens across the galaxy long enough!" It was the truth, but he sense more to it than that.

"Why me, specifically? Why did you have dear Sinbad over here," he nodded in Sinbad's direction, "charged to capture me?"

Nostrils flared for a moment, before she collected herself. Her tone was cool and unemotional once more. "You are my prisoner, and have no right to question what I do. You are a pirate and a murderer-an outlaw. Those are the charges against you."

With that, she headed back up the stairs without another word, her two officers following in her wake.

~/~/~/~/~/

As the officers, that had been patrolling the brig before Amelia showed up, decided to leave the brig but leave one officer behind to watch the crowd of pirates, Dimitri slumped back down to the floor, deep in thought.

"What are you thinking about, Captain?" Doppler asked, careful to stay away from a still raging Sinbad in the same cell.

"She knows you two."

"…Come again?"

Jim looked over at him, just as confused as Delbert.

"She knows both you and Jim." He repeated, looking over at the two of them with intent. "Apparently really well, if her actions are anything to go by."

"What do you mean? I've never met her before." Jim responded, still confused.

"And she seems to have deep-rooted feelings for you, Doc."

"Me? How can you-"

"Her expressions gave her away, not to mention her lingering gazes on the two of you. Somehow, she knows you two very well. I have no doubts about that." Dimitri fell silent once again, contemplating as an idea started to form in his mind.

"Are you certain that you're not mistaken? Like we both told you, Dimitri, we don't know her." Jim reasoned.

"I'm fully positive that she knows you… I think I do have an idea though, that'll prove this theory."

"What good will proving this theory of yours do?" Doppler asked, almost skeptical. "Say she does know us somehow. Then what?"

"If she knows you two fully well, you might be able to convince her into telling you what exactly is going on. I have a feeling that our jailor is keeping other things hidden about this arrest."

At that point, Targon butted in, having listened intently to the conversation. "Forgive my intrusion, Captain, but I have to agree with Doc and Hawkins on this one. What makes you think she'll say anything to them, or has anything more to this arrest than what's been stated?"

"You heard her, Targon. She had specifically asked for me to be brought in, and by Sinbad, no less! That only indicates that she didn't want her hands dirty."

"Got that right!" Grumbled a simmering Sinbad, who showed up next to Doppler's side.

"Why did she ask you to capture me? What was so imperative to that mission?" Dimitri asked the other pirate captain.

"Heh." He flopped down on the floor of the brig, a humorless smile on his lips. "Your guess is as good as mine, really, although the circumstances in which she asked me to run her errands for her are still something that causes me lots of confusion. But why should I tell you?" He leaned up against the bars, his back to him. "What's in it for me?"

"Of course, the quintessential Sinbad." Doc rolled his eyes. "What is it you want _this _time?"

Doppler found himself pinned against the back wall of the cell, his shirt bunched up in two very strong fists. "Wanna take that tone with me again, canid?" Sinbad spat.

Immediately, Targon ran over and pried the two apart, pincers pushing them in opposite directions. "Enough, both of you! This is no time to be fighting amongst ourselves!"

"Ourselves?" Blain laughed, coming over from the other end of the cell. "There is no 'us'. We're mortal enemies, to the very end!"

"Well, I say we should band together, so that we'd be able to get out of here and take our rightful revenge against the G.P. They have not only betrayed you," Targon said to Sinbad, "but they betrayed Captain Augustus as well. I told him we shouldn't trust them to keep their word…"

Dimitri, looking perplexed, asked, "What are you talking about, Targon? We were in league with the G.P. too? Since when-"

"This was before your time, Captain." The crustacean sighed. "You weren't a part of the bargain; rather, you _were_ the bargain. I can only imagine that's why this Amelia stuck an impulse chip in the back of Sinbad's head to make sure he delivered you to her this time, instead of being double-crossed, like Augustus had done."

"What are you saying?" Jim piped up. "What's Dimitri got to do with any of this?"

"Everything. But so do you, Hawkins."

Jim reeled back, confused and stunned. Everyone turned to him.

"You as well, Doc." Targon continued, receiving a raised eyebrow from the canid in return. The crustacean shook his head sadly. "I think it's about time I told the truth to you, Captain, since Augustus isn't here to do so himself."

~/~/~/~/~/

"_Man your stations, men! Keep those G.P. dogs off our tail!" Rasped a light-blue, spider-like being, __raising his sword high in one claw. _

_Targon saluted his captain with the rest and shuffled downstairs, heading towards the closest blaster cannon on the port side. He was squished in between several of his crew mates, the close quarters making the stench of sweat and heat almost unbearable. Ganttus ran over, holding an energy tank close to his chest, and depositing the tank into the blaster cannon. Targon took hold of the controls and waited for the cannon to charge up as a small Galaxy Police cruiser amongst a cloud of them raced toward the ship and into the line of Targon's firing range._

BOOM!

_The small craft blew into pieces, bits of cruiser parts still smoldering as it floated in place in the Etherium._

"_That'll teach 'em ta mess wit' us!" Laughed Ganttus wickedly._

_Up on deck, Augustus led the charge against a cruiser that had managed to circumvent the cannons and land upon the ship. Ten officers jumped from the cruiser, brandishing swords and blasters. They quickly open-fired into the band of pirates, taking down three of them in a couple of seconds. Augustus charged into the group of officers, taking the head of a salamander and gutting two canids. _

_It seemed that the battle against the Galaxy Police was going to be easily won, after witnessing half of the officers fall and several cruisers being picked off by his cannons, and the captain of _The Compass Blade _laughed with triumph. Although the G.P. had had the upper hand with that ambush-having baited the pirate ship into looting a fake cargo ship-Augustus had managed to destroy a good portion of their enemy's forces with minimal casualties. This fig__ht was going to be over in a matter of minutes and Augustus will have ensured that the G.P. wouldn't come back after them for a good few months._

_He couldn't have been more wrong._

_Suddenly, the appearance of reinforcements caused the pirates of _The Compass_ to go back on a desperate defensive. A large vessel brandishing the flag of the Galaxy Police came into view and instilled slight fear into every pirate on board. _

_They all had heard of the _RLS Legacy_. _

_Targon, down below decks, looked through his port hole with wide eyes. Ganttus cursed savagely. _

_Their ship had already sustained heavy damage. They couldn't take any more without the ship falling apart. _

_The_ Legacy_ approached the ship in record time, the blasts from the cannons bouncing off of its hul__l with barely a dent. It seemed the _Legacy_ had reinforced its defenses just before dispatch to capture _The Compass Blade_. Meanwhile, Augustus screamed in defiance, not willing to give up in the face of imminent defeat as he cut down his enemies like a hot __knife through butter. In all that time, the _RLS Legacy _threw planks of wood down and many an officer boarded the pirate vessel, quickly outnumbering Augustus' crew ten to one._

_Augustus turned and yelled to a black-furred canid that had just sliced a smile across an officer's neck with a dagger. "Diego, take a defensive position up by the Cabin with some of the others! Make sure they don't get above us; they'll overtake us easily that way!"_

_As Targon rushed up the stairs and onto the main deck, searching for his captain, he saw the wolf-like Diego with blood-matted fur shake his head at Augustus and yell back. "Augustus, we can't take them all on! We're losing this fight! We can't keep going! We should pull back and run while we have the chance!"_

"_I'M _NOT _GOING TO LOSE!" Bellowed Augustus. "WE CAN TAKE THEM!"_

"_WE'RE GOING TO DIE OUT HERE IF WE DON'T PULL BACK, CAPTAIN!"_

_Targon looked between the two and turned to Augustus. "Sir, he's right! Listen to Delgado; he knows what he's talking about-there's too many of them!"_

_The blue, hulking spider cut down another officer and turned his enraged yellow eyes on both of them. "ARE YOU DISOBEYING MY ORDERS?"_

"_THIS IS A LOST CAUSE, BE'LRAIN! LISTEN TO ME! WE'VE BEEN BEST FRIENDS FOR YEARS! YOU'VE ALWAYS LISTENED TO MY ADVICE BEFORE! LISTEN TO MY ADVICE NOW: THIS IS ONE BATTLE WE'RE GONNA LOSE!" Diego snarled, getting up into his captain's face. "ABANDON SHIP, NOW, BEFORE WE'RE ALL-"_

_Everything seemed to continue in slow motion. Diego, green eyes widened in surprise, fell to his knees as blood poured over his face. His dagger fell from his hand and onto the deck-the only sound amongst the muted chaos. Targon rushed to Delgado's side as he fell back onto the deck, confirming to Augustus' disbelieving eyes that his best friend had been shot in the head._

_The scream of anguished fury tore from in between his mandibles as he turned his body to face the other G.P. officers that had just boarded onto his ship. One of the officers still held a smoking blaster in his hands._

_Augustus showed no mercy._

_With his bare claws, he picked up the officer with the agility that no one believed he could possess and tore the human's body in two, blood drenching his exo-skeleton into a royal purple coloring. His eyes became molten gold, his pupils retracted into pinpoints of rage. The other officers scattered in his path as he swung his heavy claws, catching some of those unfortunate enough to be in reaching distance and sending them flying across the deck._

_But it all ended in a matter of seconds._

_Augustus was eventually tied down in chains and ropes, pinning him to the deck. Targon was clapped in irons, as well as the rest of the pirate crew. _

_Out of one hundred and fifty two pirates, only sixty four had survived and more were go__ing to die in the brig of the _RLS Legacy_._

~/~/~/~/~/

_Augustus and Targon shared a cell in the brig with four others, silent and brooding over the disastrous battle. They didn't meet any of the G.P., nor did they ever speak to the captain of the ship. _

_T__he _RLS Legacy_ had _The Compass Blade_ in an energy field, effectively tethering the ship into custody. Heavy chains also had it secured to the _Legacy. _So even if they were able to escape the brig, they wouldn't be able to take back their ship. They were __truly imprisoned._

_About a week went by when someone finally entered the brig, not counting the one officer that would come down to feed them stale biscuits and water once a day. A group of officers followed what appeared to be the captain-a female felinoid with the regal temperament befitting someone in power. Since the pirates in her brig weren't fed exceptionally well, they were too exhausted to do more than stare at her from in between the iron bars._

_She stopped at Targon's and Augustus' cell, looking down at them with hardened blue eyes. "Well met, Captain Augustus. I see you took out a good portion of my officers during the ambush. Your prowess is something to be admired."_

"_Who the hell are you, exactly?" He rasped, his anger a bitter saccharin. _

"_I am Captain Amelia of the _RLS Legacy_. Are you enjoying the accommodations I've set up for you?" She asked with amusement._

_He stood from his position on the floor and clicked his mandibles ominously._

_When no answer was forthcoming, she continued, "You an__d your men will be taken in and be put on trial for the crimes you have committed. You should have known blowing up the _Racert_ and taking twenty people as your prisoners two months ago would have eventually costed you your freedom, as well as your life. Bu__t your death won't be coming until we have you and your crew taken to trial and committed."_

_She disappeared back up the stairs, the group of officers following after her._

_The next day, a couple of officers headed down the stairs to take the watch over the pirates, to make sure nothing was going amiss in the unusually quiet brig. According to what the two were discussing going down the stairs, Amelia had been worried about the silence that pervaded the brig. She was used to her prisoners being loud, obnoxious, and threatening. The silence that this group of prisoners emanated made her believe something was being planned. _

_Nothing of the sort was. It was just simply a silence that underlined their defeat._

"…_and did you hear that the captain is still searching for this Dr. Sudayev?"_

"_Yea, I heard about that. She was charged by Colonel Richter to hunt this guy down and take him out."_

"_Is he some sort of criminal? What was he accused of?"_

"_From what I hear, he's just a psychologist. One of the best in the g__alaxy, actually. I'm not sure what he was accused of, but from what I could gather, it seemed like he's been tampering with someone's __memory… Perhaps unlocking their memory?__" Targon couldn't hear all that well when the speaker dropped his voice, but he swore he thought he heard the word _Hawk_ somewhere in there. The speaker continued, a little louder this time.__"__I don't know; I'm not a hundred percent on that, but it sounds like this Sudayev i__s a threat to galactic security to have gained the government's stamp of approval for his execution."_

"_Huh! Interesting!" A pause. "So why hasn't the captain gotten a hold of him yet? He shouldn't be that hard to find, if he's famous."_

"_He isn't. It's just a matter of keeping his death a secret. She says she needs to find a way to get him taken out without the public suspecting the G.P. and the government of doing it. If the public found out that the government ordered a seemingly 'unjustified' execution, the people would overthrow the government."_

"_Ever heard about Treasure Planet?"_

"…_Aye. What about it?"_

"_I heard that this whole thing with Sudayev has something to do with that planet."_

"_Come off it! That's a children's fairy tale!"_

_Targon noticed the interested shifting next to him that indicated that his captain was listening intently to the two officers' conversation. _

_It was about half the day, and one shift change, later-when the two officers had been replaced with another set of them—that another officer, one that was part of the group that had accompanied Amelia down in the brig the day before, came down and started taking down the names of the surviving pirates. Despite the obvious uncooperation that the officer received from some of the pirates, the male felinoid continued with his rounds, occasionally pulling out an electrical prod from his belt and loosening the stubborn pirate's name from their lips. _

_As soon as the officer got to Augustus' and Targon's cell, Augustus asked the youth, "Might I have a word with your captain?"_

_The officer, as well as several of Augustus' crew, looked at him curiously. The felinoid straightened his jacket, flicking off a particle of dust from his sleeve before answering. "Captain Amelia is busy at the moment, and I'm sure anything you have to say will be a waste of her time." He said with a smirk._

"_Just make the inquiry."_

"_Well, in that case, you could just relay the message to me and I will-"_

"_No! I want to speak to her alone!"_

_After a moment's consideration, the young felinoid twitched his lips in what was supposed to be a jagged smile. "Sure. I'll think about it." And he continued with his task._

_It was several hours later that four officers, all armed with guns, came down into the brig and brought __Augustus up onto his feet. Clapping him in irons, they escorted the captain of _The Compass Blade_ up the stairs and out of Targon's sight._

~/~/~/~/~/

"The next thing I knew, we were all freed." Targon finished. "The Captain had convinced this Amelia to let us go, on the condition that we would destroy the vessel _JV6 Romulon_, which was headed to Tyranisernum later that week, and carried the passenger Dr. Dimitri Sudayev on board. We had to make it look like a usual raid, so we were allowed to loot it. That's what Augustus had told us to do. So at the end of that week, we headed in the direction of the ship and took it out."

"But Dimitri is still alive!" Jim pointed out. "Why would Augustus keep him alive if he was ordered to kill him?"

"You think Augustus plays by the rules, Hawkins?" The crustacean laughed. "He saw the potential in Sudayev as someone he could use for his crew. He had only gained back a little over half the men he had lost in that battle, but he still needed a First Mate. Instead of killing him, he decided to destroy the ship he found Sudayev on so that it would look like he had carried out the G.P.'s request. How they found out that we kept him alive is anyone's guess."

"I still don't understand!" Dimitri yelled in frustration. "Why was I a target to begin with? Did Amelia ever tell Augustus why?"

"If he knew, he didn't tell me." Targon replied.

"You know, this whole thing sounds like it had something to do with Sudayev having been Jim's psychologist." Doppler mused aloud.

"What makes you think that, Doc?" asked Dimitri.

"Well, from what Targon told us, the fact that those two officers that had been talking about Sudayev and then mentioned the name Hawkins-"

"I said I might have heard the word 'Hawk' in their whisperings; I can't be too sure on that though."

"But don't you see? It all makes sense!" Doppler looked at each of them in turn. "They talked about memories and Sudayev as being a psychologist," he turned to Dimitri, "and it was just before you were to head out to Tyranisernum. It all fits! And doesn't the word 'Hawk' just make too much of a coincidence? They probably were saying something about Hawkins-about Jim!"

"But what would they have been talking about?" Jim interjected.

"It could be that they don't want you to remember something." Dimitri answered, thinking this over as he caught on to Delbert's train of thought. "Something that you know."

"What could I possibly know that it would put you in danger of being taken out by the Galaxy Police?"

"Well, since they seem to think I have something to do with Treasure Planet and unlocking memories, let's put two and two together…"

Jim furrowed his eyebrows, catching on to what Dimitri was saying. "You're not suggesting..?"

"That's exactly what I'm thinking! And when Sinbad's ship was captured," he pointed to Sinbad, who decided to turn around and glare at him, "he was also probably charged into capturing me. They must've planted him with the impulse chip in order to make sure he wasn't going to pull an Augustus and not follow orders. But they wanted me alive this time; not dead. Because I was inducted into piracy, they could do a public execution without any suspicions on the decision and get rid of me so that I would never be able to get a hold of Jim and unlock a repressed memory that he has!"

"But I don't have a repressed memory, Dimitri! What memory could I have of Treasure Planet? That I used to read the story when I was a child?"

"You must have known something about it; maybe you found out at one point that it really does exist!"

"That just doesn't sound possible!"

"Jim, that would make sense!" Doppler cut in, excitable as ever. "I know I said I didn't remember ever meeting Amelia before, but I have had…_visions_…about her." He turned to Dimitri. "When Targon, Engle, Masterson, and I went to Razboon to get the fuel tanks for the ship, I had a flash back and it was about Amelia! I don't know anyone that has flashbacks about people they've never met, so I must know her somehow. I just can't remember, though…"

"And considering her reactions to the both of you, I'd say she knows more. Now think, James. You must have some memory about her."

Jim closed his eyes for a minute, feeling as if this was a waste of time. How was it possible that him and Doppler would know her and that, somehow, Treasure Planet was actually real? The implications seemed too far-fetched.

He concentrated, nonetheless, on anything that might unlock a potential memory. Captain Amelia, the _RLS Legacy_, Treasure Planet… Captain Amelia, the _RLS Legacy_, Treasure Planet…

He sat there for a long time, something teasing him in the back of his mind. He had brief flashes enter his consciousness.

_A big triangle in the sky, depicting an inferno of machinery within… _

_His heart raced as he sped with increasing agility through fire, trying desperately to reach that triangle… _

'_Got to get to the map… got to get to the map…'… _

_He was falling down a chasm as he pounded his foot relentlessly against a pedal to a soldered, crude solar surfer… _

_Suddenly, he was back up, racing through the fires, as what appeared to be a ship he believed look strikingly familiar followed him… _

_He extended a finger and reached out to touch what seemed like a holographic chart…_

He gasped suddenly, as the images ceased. Jim looked around at Dimitri, Targon, and Doppler, as they in turn looked at him with expectant faces. He breathed slowly and nodded at Dimitri.

"You were right! I didn't see Amelia, but I think I saw Treasure Planet! I-I think I destroyed it!"

~/~/~/~/~/

_A/N: Yes… You read correctly… Treasure Planet happened after all! :D But why is Jim's and Doppler's memories seemingly erased? Why hasn't Amelia said anything about Treasure Planet to them? Seems like there's something going on with the government and the G.P. But what…? Stay tuned to find out more!_


	20. Phase Two

Antidote-

Paired Couple: Jim HawkinsXDimitri Sudayev/SLASH!/Lemon

_A/N: Treasure Planet belongs to Disney. Anastasia belongs to Fox Animation. Sinbad: Legend of the Seven Seas belongs to Dreamworks. Ready for another head spin of craziness? :D Why am I asking?! I know you are… MWAHAHAHAHA!_

The astrophysicist grabbed a hold of his shoulders and shook him violently. "What are you talking about, Jim?! You think you blew up Treasure Planet?!"

"I was racing toward something, trying to escape a planet that looked like it was going to explode… If that was Treasure Planet in my memories, it didn't look so good. I'm not sure if that was really Treasure Planet or not, but it felt real enough." He stared out in to space, trying to make sense of what he saw.

Suddenly, he looked around the brig, remembering the journey onto this ship when they had been arrested. Jim had thought that this ship looked familiar when boarding, but at the time he thought it was because he was still coming down from the adrenaline rush that his body had put him through when fighting for his life against Sinbad. Intense energy like that normally put anyone suffering from it to lose their wits for a moment. But now that he thought about it…

"I know this ship! I've been here before!" He exclaimed. "I think I was aboard this ship, on my way to Treasure Planet."

Dimitri began to pace. "So it's now been established that both you and Doc definitely have memories about Treasure Planet and Amelia, that perhaps you have even been aboard this vessel that took you there," he turned and spoke directly to the canid, "I think you should try to gain an audience with this Captain Amelia. She knows something, probably more than both of you do, and I'm confident that you can convince her to talk about it."

"…Well, if you're sure, Captain…"

"I am."

Doppler nodded, thinking of all the bad possibilities that can spawn from this idea.

~/~/~/~/~/

When the usual officer came down with the basket of stale biscuits and tin cups of water, Doppler called out to him.

"Excuse me, Officer! May I have a word?"

The surly galaxy police officer glared at Doppler for a moment, before deciding to ignore him. Doppler looked resolutely over to Dimitri, obviously seeing the endeavor as a lost cause. Dimitri only glared back at him, as if to tell him to try again, or else. Doppler, hardly fazed by the threatening gaze, sighed and called out again.

"Please listen to me! I must speak with your captain!" He called out desperately. "I have something urgent to discuss with her!"

The officer strode back over, sneering, "What makes you think you're important enough to speak with her, cretin? She's deciding your miserable fates as we speak. She's rather busy with that." He added with a nasty grin.

Out of the corner of his eye, the astrophysicist caught Jim giving him a slight nod.

"Please!" Doppler grabbed a hold of the officer's uniform and dragged himself down to his knees, pleading. "Please grant me my last words! I must confess to her of-of my crimes!" At this, he began to wail as if in tears, though no tears were shed.

Rather with disgust than pity, the officer jerked his uniform out of Delbert's grip. "Alright, alright! Sheesh! If it'll shut your stupid yap, I'll see if she'll be inclined to see your sorry ass!"

"Thank you so very much, sir." Delbert sniffled, picking himself up off the floor and looking up at him with enlarged eyes.

The officer handed the basket over to his subordinate at the foot of the stairs and left the brig.

Doppler narrowed his eyes over at Dimitri's and Jim's weak attempts of holding back laughter, slightly snarling in their direction. "If you ever make me do that again, I will hurt you."

~/~/~/~/~/

What felt like many hours later, the door to the brig opened and steps lightly descended down the stairs. Followed by the officer that had been passing around the prisoners' rations, Captain Amelia raked the room with her eyes, settling her sights gently upon Doppler. As with every time she had looked at him, her gaze was tinged with something akin to sadness and regret, before it was quickly masked by indifference.

"What is it that you wish to speak to me about?"

"I was hoping I could speak to you in private, actually. I am willing to comply and give up more names that were a part of the crew I was inducted into that had managed to escape."

Amelia seemed to think it over for a minute.

"Very well." She turned to the officer that had followed her. "Bring him to my Cabin."

"Captain, is that wise?" He automatically asked, distrust and concern written all over his face.

"You forget who you speak to, Ranyul."

The officer's eyes widened before he inclined his head in respect. "My apologies, Captain." He fumbled with the keys at his belt and unlocked the cell. Closing it behind him, he bound Doppler in manacles and led him out of the cell, locking it back up.

With a blaster trained on his head, Doppler looked back at Dimitri and Jim with apprehension, before disappearing up the stairs after Amelia.

"You think he can get her to talk about what's going on?" Jim asked Dimitri.

"I am positive he can. I wouldn't have been the galaxy's most revered psychologist if I wasn't a hundred percent sure about these sorts of things."

"But this is _Doc_ we're talking about here." Jim reminded him. "He's not exactly subtle."

"No. But he has a way about him that will guarantee success." Dimitri smiled back at him. "Now, while he's distracting the captain and getting any useful information we can use, now's the time for phase two of our plan."

"Phase two? What plan?"

The Russian only winked at him and tapped Sinbad's shoulder, who had fallen asleep in his cell with his back facing them all.

"What are you about?!" He yelled, half-asleep.

"Captain Sinbad of _The Dark Serpent_, I am willing to call a truce between our crews for the time being. I could use your help. If you wish to escape the confines of this ship, I've got a plan, if you're willing to listen."

Sinbad, who had sat attentively silent, started to grin. "A truce, you say?"

"Yes."

"And we'll be guaranteed off this ship?"

"Only if this plan works the way it's supposed to. And in the struggle to get out of here, we'll more than likely take down our fair share of the G.P. while we're at it."

"Hmmm… I like the sound of this. Please do oblige me and continue."

~/~/~/~/~/

Doppler, closely tailed by the officer Ranyul who trained a gun on him, followed Captain Amelia as she lead them to her Cabin.

As they stepped up onto the main deck, Doppler got a glance of other galaxy police officers tending to various tasks. As they passed, every officer saluted the felinoid in blue, standing at attention, until her small procession continued onward. One officer, another female felinoid, stopped before Amelia and held out a chart in front of her.

"Captain, there's a high prediction of meteor showers about five hundred knots in our course directive. Shall we proceed with a course change in going thirty knots due port?"

Before Amelia could respond, Doppler pushed her aside and grabbed a hold of the chart, scanning it over. "No, going thirty due port from this position would only ensure the ship going into the meteor shower only ten minutes later than if we were to maintain our course as of right now." He pointed to a part of the chart knowingly. "Here, the pattern of the meteor shower shows that it'll swoop around us at first, if we were to go to port side, and then it'd hit us full on two minutes later. So if we were to go fifty knots starboard, we'd steer the ship away from the shower completely."

The officer looked at him incredulously. She stared back at the chart, and then back at him. "Who do you think you are?!"

"I am Dr. Doppler, a very astute astrophysicist who knows what he's talking about. Now if you'll listen to me, we can avoid a disaster by going fifty knots starboard. Or you can get us blown up by continuing on with the suggested route _you_ came up with."

Shocked and confused, she looked at her captain, awaiting orders despite the fact that she wanted to hurt him.

"Do as he says." Amelia nodded.

Giving him a look of pure loathing, she headed in the direction of the ship's wheel. The captain, the astrophysicist, and his guard continued to the cabin. As soon as they were inside, she turned to the officer, receiving a salute in return.

"You may go now."

After ten minutes of complete silence in the Cabin, the two surveyed each other with interest. The canid, although intrigued by this feline, was still somewhat skeptical. Despite his own belief that everything made sense if Amelia knew anything about Jim and him and perhaps knew anything remotely about Treasure Planet to boot, he couldn't help but echo Jim's questions in his mind.

Did she really have all the answers? How could a mere Galaxy Police Chief have any answers about what was going on?

He was about to find out…

"So what is it that you wish to speak to me about? You say you have information for me?" All the while she said this, she averted her eyes from him as she paced around her desk.

"I don't, unfortunately." Doppler replied, taking careful note of her actions.

Amelia turned as if to face him, but still kept her eyes lowered. "Then why have you requested an audience with me? This is a waste of my time and does nothing to help you in your case."

The venom that was supposed to accompany the statement was conspicuously absent. In fact, it sounded as if an edge of pity crept into her voice. This wasn't lost to the astrophysicist; he was eager to learn more.

_Perhaps Dimitri's right…_

"This was the only way to gain an audience with you, ma'am-"

"I shall have someone escort you back to your cell, since you have nothing of importance to say to me-"

"If you'll just hear me out, then I can explain-"

_SLAM!_

"Dammit Doppler, there's nothing you can say at this point to change anything!" Her knuckles shook on the surface of the desk.

"…So you do know who I am, then?" He cautiously asked.

"Of course, you're a well re-known astrophysicist." Her tone became flat, something of a precursor that somehow indicated to him that she was lying.

"Now, if you'll excuse me, I have other things to do around the ship that require my attention."

"Please, just hear me out!" He grabbed her hand suddenly, just as she was turning away. "Amelia, did you and I once have affection for one another? 'Cause while I may not remember you, I keep having flashbacks about you. I know that you must have some sort of idea about all of this. If you could please tell me, I want to know."

She looked at him with a mix of surprise and what was akin to hope. Ears lying flat against her head, Amelia looked into his eyes and said on a painful whisper, "You're not supposed to remember me, Doppler… While my heart aches to say it, you're not supposed to remember me... It is unfortunate that you got branded in with pirates and that I would be the one to capture you. I can't answer your questions. I'm truly sorry…"

"Who am I, Amelia? Who am I to you? Please, you have to help me!"

"I can't…" Tears glittered in her eyes as she continued to look away, her mask of professional stoicism slipping away.

He took her by the shoulders and calmly said, "Please, Captain Amelia, if there's anyone that can help me solve this; help me figure out what's going on and perhaps uncover mine and Jim's past and discover the truth about Treasure Planet, it would be you."

"…What did you say?"

"Jim and I, we need to figure out what it is about our pasts-"

"No, Treasure Planet!" She shook him roughly, panic gripping tightly in her ribcage. "Who told you about Treasure Planet?! Where did you hear that from?!"

"From the First Mate of _The Compass Blade_, Targon. Why? Do you know something about it?"

"No one is supposed to know anything about it!" She let him go, looking defeated as she sat down in a chair in front of her desk. "How could this have happened?!"

"According to Targon, your crew has some very loose lips. When he was captured last time, three years ago, he and Augustus had overheard something about the government needing someone silenced. Since the Galaxy Police would be under suspicion if they did anything to get rid of this certain person, you guys needed someone to do the dirty work. Augustus, it seemed like, took the opportunity to offer his services in exchange for freedom." Doppler sat in a chair opposite from her before continuing. "Frankly, I'm surprised the Galaxy Police would take in to such corruption just to shut Dimitri Sudayev up. What doesn't surprise me is Augustus' last act of defiance against authority: keeping him alive and inducting him into the crew."

"You aren't supposed to know, Doppler! Neither is Jim! If it was ever found out that you and Hawkins know about or remember anything pertaining to Treasure Planet, you both could be killed!"

"What do any of us have to do with Treasure Planet, Amelia?" Standing up, he reached across the desk and clasped his hands tight over hers. "Please, you must tell me!"

Suddenly, the lights in the Cabin went out and started flashing red. A high pitched alarm went off, screeching into Delbert's ears and causing him to clap his hands over them. Amelia jumped up from her seat and grabbed the front of his jacket.

"You did this deliberately!" She yelled in his face, almost hissing with fury as she pulled a blaster from under the desk and pointed it at his head.

"I don't know what you're talking about!" He all but wailed in response. "I just need to know what role we took pertaining to Treasure-"

"Liar! You did this to distract me! If I allow your crew mates to commandeer my ship, our children will pay the price!"

"OUR _WHAT?!_" The gun in his face was less of a shock than it was to discover that he had fathered children with this felinoid.

~/~/~/~/~/

"So _this_ is phase two?!" Jim yelled incredulously as he waited for Dimitri to unlock his cell.

"What? Don't like my methods, sweetheart?" He flashed him a saucy grin that was leaps and bounds out of character with his usual stoic expression as a captain of a ruthless band of cutthroats. "I could always let you wait in your cell, if you wish, until all the fighting and commandeering is over."

The captain in front of him, aided with the help of his crew, as well as Sinbad-of all people-had managed to provoke a verbal fight with the guard that was overseeing the brig and had stolen a set of brass keys from his unconscious body once Targon had rammed the unfortunate officer's head into one of the iron bars. It had been almost too easy…

But as soon as the crustacean managed to unlock his cell and began working on Dimitri's, a guard that was apparently supposed to take the next shift had witnessed the scene and pulled a gun on him in that same moment that Dimitri and his cell mates were free. Shooting his blaster towards the group of pirates, the officer-managing to take down one in the shoulder-they rushed him, preparing to take him down with brute force while Dimitri snatched the keys up from Targon.

The officer, perhaps a new recruit judging by how quickly he paled at the sight of rushing pirates, ran toward the stairs of the brig, seeking the alarm switch next to the door. Managing to pull it in time, the officer didn't stand a chance when they converged upon him, knocking him unconscious.

Almost immediately, the brig swarmed with officers rushing down the stairs towards those that had escaped their cells.

When a stray blast from a gun missed Jim's head by mere inches, he ducked and looked over at Dimitri.

"On second thought, this is a good plan after all! You can let me out now!"

"That's the Jim I know!" He grinned, unlocking his door. As soon as the door was pushed open, the other pirates that had been locked inside with Jim shoved them out of the way in order to join in on the fight.

It had caused Jim to trip over his own feet and into Dimitri's arms.

The close contact almost set them on fire with barely suppressed need. Dimitri only flushed scarlet as they stared into each other's eyes.

"What's wrong? No words for me, _O My Captain_? You seemed cocky just ten seconds ago." Jim laughed, feeling light-headed at the feeling of being in his lover's arms again.

The laughter was contagious, even as chaos ensued around them. Instead of responding, Dimitri leaned in and Jim was only too eager to taste that long-awaited sweet kiss on his lips and tongue. They gripped each other's faces; barely breathing as they unconsciously realized how long they had been apart and how much that time being separated had almost driven them mad with longing.

They paused for a breather-drunk on each other, eyes only for each other-as an officer converged on the pair, seeking to run them through with a cutlass. Jim turned around and punched the officer square in the face before the human had managed to raise his blade. The impact knocked the man out cold. Dimitri looked down with barely registered surprise.

"Did I ever tell you just how sexy I find you to be?" He replied as he looked back up into dark rowan eyes, before gluing his lips upon Jim's once again.

After their quick, passionate kiss, they parted, momentarily squeezing each other's hands before running into the fray of fighting pirates and galaxy police.

~/~/~/~/~/

_A/N: Next segment is another mind-blower, so buckle your seat belts, lads! :D R&R as always!_


	21. Entering The Fray, Sinbad Escapes

Antidote-

Paired Couple: Jim HawkinsXDimitri Sudayev/SLASH!/Lemon

_A/N: Treasure Planet belongs to Disney. Anastasia belongs to Fox Animation. Sinbad: Legend of the Seven Seas belongs to Dreamworks. You're probably asking when this is gonna end, aren't ya? xD NAH! You enjoy this too much; I know you do! Enjoy some more from yours truly!_

"I am your wife, Captain Amelia Doppler. We've been married for the past six years, though you wouldn't remember that!" She spat savagely.

"How could I _not_ remember getting married to you?!" He asked incredulously. Then, by decree of his normal behavior, he added, "Unless we were drunk beyond belief-which I have never once taken a drink in my entire life, might I add-I don't see how I wouldn't know that I was married to such a beautiful-well, that is to say-"

She cocked back the hammer on the blaster, silencing his frantic monologue. She gave a regretful smile. "You always were a charmer, Delbert, but I can't have our children be put at risk."

"Wait!" Doppler pleaded. "This wasn't my idea! They just told me to ask you about Treasure Planet, that's all! I swear!"

Just as she was about to take aim, he shut his eyes…

But the shot never came.

Squinting his eyes open, he noticed that her hand quivered. He looked at her questioningly. She put the gun down, her ears lying back and her eyes full of sorrow.

"I can't do it. Not to you; never to you…" She whispered.

In response, he wound his arms around her and held her tight for a couple of moments.

Suddenly, he saw a flash of memory of Amelia lying down, her arm in a makeshift sling…

~/~/~/~/~/~/

"_We must stay together… and… and…" The felinoid fell back against the ground, her eyes fluttering closed._

"_WHAT? WE MUST STAY TOGETHER AND WHAT?"_

"_Doctor, you have… wonderful eyes."_

"_She's lost her mind!"_

~/~/~/~/~/~/

"I may not remember being married to you, and having children, but I think I'm starting to remember how we met." He said loudly amidst the sirens.

She pulled out of his embrace and hooked a claw around a chain under her uniform's collar. She pulled out a locket. Upon opening it, a holographic image started playing.

Four toddlers, three girl felinoids and one canid boy, laughed and played joyfully with a sentient pink creature that would shift into rattlers and other toys for them at intervals. Doppler held the locket in his hands, staring at the image.

A tear ran down his cheek as he continued watching the children. _His childre__n._

Looking at the boy, he realized how much he looked so much like him, except for the eyes. Those were Amelia's.

"What's his name?"

"Benjamin Alistair Doppler." She put the locket back under her uniform. "He's about two months old in this hologram, but he's going to be six years old very soon. Every time I'm allowed to visit our children, I always let them know that you love them and that you'll be coming to see them soon; that you went on a very long trip."

"…Wait. You're being_ allowed_ to see our children? Who's keeping them? Where are they?" With each question, Doppler's voice only got louder until he was shouting with rage.

The felinoid sighed. "Our children are being kept in a facility on Planet Fairbronal."

"…Fairbronal? Isn't that the-?"

"Yes. The planet that the Etherium government and the galaxy police reside on."

"Our children are hostages? To what end?"

"You and Hawkins were never supposed to discover Treasure Planet. As collateral, our children are being kept by the government so that I would not betray the fact that Treasure Planet exists; that I wouldn't seek you out and perhaps betray that secret."

"But this doesn't make any se-"

She roughly grabbed his arm and dragged him out of the Cabin. "There's no time to explain right now, Doppler! We must hurry if we are to stop Hawkins!"

"Stop him?! Why?!"

"Because I'm not losing our children over this!"

Before she could take another step, he thrust his palm into her sight, showcasing his scar. "I'm a pirate, as far as the Galaxy Police and the government are concerned. I carry a pirate's mark. They'll more than likely hang me, too; thinking I had something to do with this!"

"And did you?"

"No!" He yelled, incredulous, as Amelia dragged him down the steps and onto the main deck. "I just wanted to talk to you! Hawkins and Sudayev told me that it seemed as if you knew me! They said I should talk to you and…" He stopped mid-sentence, something clicking into place in his mind. "…Oh my word, I am the distraction!"

Amelia didn't reply, but continued to drag the two of them toward the brig at the aft of the ship.

"But that shouldn't matter!" Doppler continued frantically. "Jim is your friend, as well as mine! You should want to help us!"

At this, the felinoid stopped and turned to look at him, a snarl on her face. "At the cost of our children?!"

"No! Let's take down the government, Amelia! Let's take down the officials that kidnapped our kids! With Sudayev's and Hawkins' help, we can rescue our children! We should fight the government, not help them! Who knows when they'll let our kids go?! Who's to say they won't kill me? As I see it, they're trying to already! They don't care!"

Amelia looked to him with melancholy in her eyes, torn between wanting to help him and perhaps rescue their children and needing to fulfill her duty to ensure that their children wouldn't be harmed.

He looked deeply into her eyes. "You know what lies in your heart, Amelia. Follow it, for you know it's the right thing to do."

~/~/~/~/~/~/~/

Dimitri fell against the wall, holding the stolen sword in a death grip, as blood coated his chin from his split lower lip. The officer in front of him was just as worn out, but still retained his determination.

Unfortunately, it was the determination to hack Dimitri into pieces.

The pirate captain forced himself to spin out of the way while the canid officer ended up gutting the wall instead. While the officer wrenched his sword free, Dimitri managed to slice open the canid's back, rendering his opponent helpless on the floor as he writhed in agony. A deft stab through the throat ended the poor male's screams of pain.

Just as soon as one enemy was taken out of the equation, however, many more were there to replace him, as such is true in the field of battle.

Running past him, and the two new officers he was now dueling, was Sinbad who was busy being fired upon by a broad shouldered felinoid that seemed to have had their tail lopped off during the fight. Despite that many a crew member of his had died during the last battle and weren't exactly faring well under the present circumstances, Sinbad seemed to have a mischievous glint in his eyes as he took the lives of those that had diminished his crew. If Sinbad and Dimitri hadn't been mortal enemies from the get-go, they would have made great comrades in the same crew.

However, Dimitri couldn't ever see him in that light. He was an enemy captain who had tried to force himself on Jim after having him beaten within an inch of his life, regardless of whether or not a compulsory chip made him do so.

That was one factor that still didn't make sense in this whole scenario. He wouldn't put it past Sinbad to do such an act himself, but who would gain from Jim being taken advantage of by the captain of _The Dark Serpent _through a series of commands through the compulsory chip?

If his suspicions were correct about Treasure Planet's existence, he could understand why someone would have Jim silenced through grisly torture. But who would be the puppeteer in that instance to the compulsory chip imbedded in Sinbad?

He dispatched one officer with a well-placed jab into an eye socket and elbowed the other in the temple, either knocking him out or killing him, but successfully counting him out of the fight.

Just as he was ready to jump into a knot of pirates and galaxy police ten feet away, he heard an anguished cry off to his left as he was suddenly spattered with blue gore across his face. That didn't register, however, as the scene unfurled without his consent.

Targon clutched at the open wound in his chest with a heavy claw, his breathing becoming heavy and labored.

The crustacean's eyes clouded over with mortal agony as the three galaxy police officers flanked around his great torso, taking initiative when realizing that this great foe was going down in a matter of moments. Targon's missing leg was the perfect advantage and they exploited it with ease as one officer kicked his tied off stump. The pain brought Targon to his knees, leaning his heavy bulk against the iron bars of one cell. He fended off a thrust to his right shoulder, but clumsily missed dodging the second officer's attack to his side.

Blue blood coated the floor…

Dimitri, yelling with abandon, charged into the fray with a frenzy that was rarely seen in his calm demeanor.

But just as he reached his outnumbered friend, the crustacean looked at him with six smiling eyes.

"TARGON!"

An arcing blade cut across the soft-tissue throat, dropping the heavy exoskeleton to the deck.

Dimitri could only stare with disbelief as the blood soaked through his boots. Memories flashed by, months passing in a matter of seconds in his mind, before he gripped the hilt of the stolen sword in a white-knuckled fist. The Russian's body shook with pent-up emotions: rage, guilt, and grief.

His teeth bared in a snarl, his split lip swollen and bleeding into his mouth and down his chin, covered head to hip in his best friend's life force, Dimitri lost all sense of rationality. With a barely registered thought, he brought the sword arcing and gliding through the tangle of the three officers, easily downing them as if he merely brushed aside wet paper. Although his precision was dead accurate and the three bodies fell to his feet in a matter of seconds, it had felt as if several minutes had trickled by. Adrenaline pumped through his veins, clouding out all thought and sound.

As another officer broke from the main contingent of fighters to engage him in battle, Dimitri sustained a cut along his forearm and a broken thumb, but he seemed to not have felt any of it. Instead, he swung the sword around and gutted the female frog-like creature in front of him. Again and again, many more came over to him and he thwarted them all with a deadly fierceness, despite the many minor injuries that were placed against him.

He only knew anger-an unresolvable, deep-seated fury-that consumed his mind. Targon's corpse laid by his feet, becoming an anchor to Dimitri's madness.

Across the way, along one wall really close to the staircase that lead to the upper decks, Jim fought and parried his way through a throng of galaxy police. Now and again, he had been checking out of his peripheral towards Dimitri, making sure that he was okay.

As he dodged out of the way of a spinning metal baton, however, Jim had caught the sight of Dimitri witnessing Targon's demise.

The sight made Jim feel as if someone had punched him in the gut. Targon had been Dimitri's First Mate and, from what he could gather, his best friend since his induction into piracy.

To see the battle-hardened pirate go down with ease… it was an element in the fight that brought to the surface the reality of the situation… Death was inevitable and very likely to strike at any moment, without apologies or warnings.

Jim took in the grim reminder with bitter regret in his heart. Targon had been a good, if abrasive, second-in-command, despite not having known him for long.

As Dimitri had started rushing into the throng of officers that had taken down his best friend, Jim joined the fight. He was damned if he was going to allow Dimitri to become another statistic.

~/~/~/~/~/

Delbert and Amelia rushed down the stairs as fast as they could, seeking to help alleviate the odds against the pirates. It helped that Captain Amelia was mistaken as being on the side of the Galaxy Police. Every time one of the officers sought her help, the felinoid would quickly dispatch them and knock them unconscious. However, if that didn't work, she'd put a good charge from her blaster into plenty of bodies, stopping their life forces completely.

Despite having spent the past six years alongside these men on her ship, Amelia didn't feel remorse. She did only what was necessary and quickly snuffed out their lives, making sure none of these men and women suffered longer than they had to, if only out of mere respect for them.

The smallest of twinges, however, escaped her when she had to take out a young cadet that had just passed their exam at GPA with flying colors. She had paused as she watched the young man fall to her feet.

What Amelia was doing was treason; there was no doubt about that. But there was no going back now. She couldn't shirk the past from her shoulders. Amelia stepped over the body and continued forward.

Doppler charged down the stairs after her, dodging charger blasts that flew around the brig.

The scene looked grim.

Dimitri and Jim stood back to back, fighting off ten officers with bleak prospects. Jim looked as if his right arm was broken, while Dimitri's side bled profusely from a small puncture wound just below his ribcage.

Across the room, Sinbad limped badly, but fought as ferociously as he did when fighting off _The Compass Blade_'screw three days ago. Kale, off in a remote corner of the brig and one of the very few that escaped horrible affliction, parried a blow that would have decapitated him and stabbed the female lizard-like officer in the gut. The other six remaining officers circled the human then, blocking Kale from view.

Doppler witnessed Blain losing his hand to a blaster shot, his screams one of the many that rang in the confined space. And as the canid with the sour breath and stocky stature clutched his ruined appendage in agony, another shot tore into his face and splattered his brain all over the floor, ending his whimpers.

Meanwhile, Gishna clutched at the iron bars of the cells near the top of the ceiling, screeching horribly and inflating to the point that some of the blood red quills that jutted from her body ended up shooting off of her and impaling passing pirates and police alike. Boils, lacerations, bruises, sudden death were the side effects of these dangerously potent quills. Not unreasonably, everyone in the brig just barely managed to give the Primetorian a wide berth.

Groven slithered toward the nearest officer to Doppler and Amelia, after impaling another one in the throat beforehand with the paring knife he had stolen, and tripped the human officer with his long serpentine tail. But as the officer fell to his back, he shot Groven in the shoulder, rendering it useless. The Serpentis-ille dropped the paring knife as he fell sideways to the deck and gripped his injured shoulder, breathing through gritted fangs.

"C'mon, Doppler, let's do this!" Amelia pulled at Doppler's sleeve and dragged him into the fray, her gun held high.

~/~/~/~/

He watched as the felinoid in regal attire and the canid with the large glasses by the name of Doppler charged into the fight, the felinoid shooting with abandon at seemingly her own men, while the canid looked ill, but shot at a couple of the officers with slight reluctance and deadly accuracy.

He swung around and punched another officer in the jaw, knocking the human to the floor. It was his chance now; there were few in sight and they all seemed to be engaged in combat. He grinned wickedly, dragging his leg behind him, as he used the sword in his hand as a crutch.

He came upon Kale and the officer he was gutting and shouted, "Let's get out of here! Tell any of our men that are left to meet me at the aft of the ship! I'm gonna go free _The Serpent_!"

Kale looked at him dead in the eye and nodded gravely. "Aye, Captain."

Sinbad limped quickly to the stairs, his leg causing him discomfort every time he jostled it on a body or corner of a cell. Just as he was about to leave out of the door of the brig, he looked over his shoulder.

There stood Hawkins, standing back to back with the captain of _The Compass Blade_, fighting with desperation with three officers that jabbed and swung at them.

Hawkins looked so much like Leland… His beloved captain…

Everything within him screamed at him to help the lad, as perhaps a last tribute to his fallen lover, but he struggled with the urge. Something had happened to him when he had Hawkins in his captivity, which was for certain, seeing as how he had moments of complete memory loss at times. But with the fact that an impulsion chip had been imbedded in his head, he couldn't help but feel as if someone had _wanted_ him to harm Hawkins as much as possible.

But why..?

He shook his head. Too many questions, and they would remain unanswered if he wanted out of here.

He disappeared up on deck, heading toward the control stations that held the mechanism for the force field that kept both pirate ships in custody. On the way, he had encountered some officers that had been left at their stations, but he managed to quickly vanquish them with little effort, but not without many more injuries to add to his repertoire of pain. Finally getting to the control station, he looked over the dials and buttons and flipped a couple of toggle switches with expert agility. Pressing down on a bright blue button, he heard the faint sound of the force fields dropping-a sound reminiscent of water being pulled through a drain.

Sinbad dragged himself across the deck and toward the aft of the ship, seeing a few of his remaining crewmen in the distance making for the ship. Kale led the procession, shooting two officers in the head with a blaster he managed to pilfer from the brig.

They jumped aboard _The Serpent_ and quickly took position to start the engines and unfurl the solar sails in preparation for departure.

Kale caught Sinbad as he jumped the seven foot gap.

"Where to, Captain?"

Sinbad looked around his ship for a moment, thinking. The farthest point in the Etherium he could be, the better.

"Head starboard to coordinates five-six-two-eight-six, double speed!"

"Aye, Captain!"

~/~/~/~/~/~/~/

_A/N: I know it's been a while since I've updated on here, but here is my second to last chapter of this story. Hope you all enjoy it, 'cause it's ending soon! :D _


	22. Epilogue: An Unexpected Ally

Antidote-

Paired Couple: Jim HawkinsXDimitri Sudayev/SLASH!/Lemon

_A/N: Enjoy the last segment in this exciting fanfic! From yours truly!_

Finally, the fighting had ended. The battle had been grim and brutal, but it was done. The last standing survivors of the onslaught had managed to tie up and gag those that were merely knocked unconscious and depositing them in the cells of the brig. But there was still something that was left undone…

He couldn't trust her. She was the last of her crew to be left standing and it seemed as if she couldn't trust him either. Despite having watched her take down her own men, he couldn't be sure if there was an ulterior motive behind her actions. He cocked the hammer of the blaster back, expecting to take her down moments before she could fire her own blaster on him.

"Captain! Stop!" Doppler dived in the way, knocking the blaster out of Dimitri's hands. "She's not your enemy!"

The Russian picked up the canid by the collar as easily as he would a sack of rotten purps. "What the hell do you think you're _doing?!_"

"Let Doppler go, or I'll blow your head off!" Amelia snarled.

"Not until you drop your weapon!"

She smirked, "Hm. Bold words coming from a dead man. I don't think you're in a position to make demands."

He grinned back at her while reaching for his boot. Whipping out a small dagger, he turned the canid to face her, holding the blade against the astrophysicist's throat. "Aren't I, though?"

"_C-Captain?!_"

"Dimitri! What the fuck?!" Jim yelled from across the brig, running to the scene.

"Stay out of this!" Dimitri pierced the brunette with a deadly gaze, before turning back to the felinoid. "I'm only going to say this one more time: DROP YOUR FUCKING WEAPON!"

With a clatter, her blaster fell from her hands as she eyed the pirate captain with loathing.

"Now…" He let Doppler leave his deadly embrace, the latter breathing hard with fearful adrenaline. "…kick your blaster over to me. If you don't… let's just say I'm better at blade tossing than slitting a throat."

Her hackles raised, she kicked it off the floor to spiral into his outstretched hand. Seeing the triumphant smile on his face caused her to narrow her eyes in fury.

"Heh. I knew he was a weak spot. Glad I was right, so I could use him as leverage."

Jim stared in appalling confusion at the outrageousness of Dimitri's actions, before turning his dropped jaw into a dark scowl.

"Don't give me that look, James. You knew it was the only way."

"Really?! Are you fucking serious?!" He blurted. "You could have listened to Doc, instead of threatening to blow his brains out!" The twenty-one year old stomped over to his captain and lifted said canid to his feet, planting Delbert's arm around his shoulders. "Isn't he your friend? Your crew mate?"

"Those he may be, but it was the only way I could have ensured that this Captain Amelia here wouldn't do something she would rue."

"She's been fighting on our side! Are you fucking _blind?!_"

Dimitri cast him a dark, meaningful look. "Don't question my methods, _Hawkins_." He turned back to the felinoid. "Now, give me one good reason to spare your life."

"Because I am the only one that can answer the questions you may have regarding your bounty, as well as the bounty on Hawkins and Doppler."

He eyed her critically, thinking hard upon the statement. Slowly, he returned his blaster to its holster, folding his arms over his chest with the second blaster sitting comfortably in his left hand.

"Continue."

"Very well," Amelia sighed with defeat. "It was six years ago, when Doppler, Hawkins, B.E.N., and I were coming back to Montressor's Space Port after the destruction of Treasure Planet."

He laughed. "Treasure Planet? What do you take me for?"

"It's not a myth, you imbecile! By now, you should know that. That's what all of this is about! The bounty on all of your heads is the result of Treasure Planet's discovery, which was never supposed to be found."

"This still doesn't make any sense, though! How did we get this way? Why can't I remember you correctly? Why have we been separated for six years?" Doppler interjected, finding his footing.

"When we were on our way back to the Space Port after the destruction, Hawkins released the pirate captain, John Silver. A month after his release, Silver had kidnapped and killed the Prime Minister of Quadrant Eight-Zero-Zero-Three. The government would have counted it as a tragic event, had it not been the fault of Hawkins and myself.

When we had Silver captured in our hold, along with several other pirates under his command, I had contacted the government about the capture of Silver and his crew. However, when we were accosted by the Galaxy Police at the Space Port and they asked after the pirate captain's whereabouts, Hawkins had told them that he had killed Silver when he was trying to escape the ship.

I didn't question it, as Hawkins had told me that Silver had been shot and fell to his death into the Etherium; that was right after he let Silver go. That was good enough for the Galaxy Police and they relayed it to the government officials. But when it was found out that Silver was still alive and at large, having killed the Prime Minister, the government believed that we had helped Silver escape. We were arrested and taken into custody four months later."

"So what does Treasure Planet have anything to do with all of this? And why would James let this Silver escape to begin with?" Dimitri questioned, still skeptical.

"I'm figuring that Silver had saved Hawkins' life on Treasure Planet, just before the planet self-destructed. Although the trip to the planet was long and arduous, Hawkins and Silver had bonded like a father and son would. Hawkins looked up to Silver, that I knew for certain, before it was found out that Silver and his band were a bunch of turncoat pirates."

"So why would the government want to hide the fact that Treasure Planet exists?" Jim broke in, trying to make sense of all the disjointed flashbacks he had been experiencing. "So what if it does exist?"

"You don't understand… None of you do. The actual existence of Treasure Planet was regarded as top secret by the Etherium Government because of their illegal association with the planet's very existence."

"Wait, what are you saying? That the government has something to do with all that loot?"

"In a matter of speaking." She said matter-of-factly. "Rather, it's the fact that the government allowed Flint's trove to exist at all."

Doppler cut in with an almost disbelieving tone. "Hold on! Are you saying that the government _allowed_ Captain Flint to plunder the galaxy?"

"That is exactly what I'm saying. Captain Flint had been hired on as a mercenary of sorts to keep the Procyon Armada away from our galaxy, since he had the strongest ship and the most ruthless crew in all of the Etherium at the time. So long as he was given royal pardon from his misdeeds in the past, as well as being allowed to take whatever he pleased from any cargo ships that ran across his path, he played the loyal lap dog of the government.

However, being the cunning pirate that he was, he built himself an almost nigh indestructible ship, and armed it with the largest band of pirates as he could muster. After he had beaten back the Procyon Armada for us, the government's intention was to rein him in and arrest him after all was said and done.

But again, like I said before, he was cunning and thought two steps ahead. He knew our government's intention to take him down, so he backstabbed them before they had a chance to and took off to parts unknown for a couple of years.

Unfortunately, we had armed him with the best weapons that money could buy, as well as components and blue prints for a holographic map that would instantaneously transport him to different parts of the galaxy in order to fight off the Armada-or, at least, that was the original intention behind it. Instead, during his two year disappearance, he had kidnapped a well-known engineer by the name of Dr. Sympluta to work on his map, whom was never seen again."

Dimitri snorted. "How are you so sure about this?"

"Over the past six years, I've essentially been spying so as to understand why we were targeted for this. Letting Silver escape only proved to be a viable excuse to arrest us-again, compliments of Hawkins and I."

"I think I'm starting to understand," Doppler mused. "What you're saying is that, because the government let Captain Flint run amok around the Etherium, in return for his protection against the Armada, they allowed him to steal and pillage to his heart's desire. Thus, when he finally turned against us, the government couldn't let anyone know about the secret pact they had made with the pirate, or else the rest of the Etherium would overthrow the government. And those within the government wouldn't want that; they're the ones in power and they don't want to give that up.

Plus, with Flint's trove out there, waiting to be discovered years and years later, the government was probably hoping to cash in on the stolen loot. And if anyone should find it, despite whether or not the people knew about the pact, the government would have had to hand over the stolen loot to their rightful owners. So they were probably hoping that our expedition to finding the planet would prove to be successful so that they could take the gold for themselves and silence us in the process, therefore they wouldn't have to do the grunt work."

"Because we blew up the planet, though, and we survived the explosion, they didn't want our tales of the expedition reaching anyone else. That's why they had you and Hawkins' memories erased, while B.E.N.'s memory circuit has been removed."

"Who is B.E.N.?" Jim asked.

"He's the robot that we found marooned on Treasure Planet. He was Flint's personal navigator, albeit he was a bit… odd."

Dimitri reflected on the entirety of the discussion, finally responding. "So the government has wiped their memories of Treasure Planet, I get that part. But what do I have to do with any of it?"

"They believed you'd be able to unlock Hawkins' memories, back when he was court-ordered to go to therapy. You were the key to unlocking the past."

After a moment of shocked silence, the Russian shook his head. "But that's completely out of mere opinionated speculation! They can't possibly know that I would be the one to bring back those memories!"

"On the contrary," the felinoid shot back. She turned to Jim suddenly. "During any time when you went to therapy, did you ever experience seemingly random flashbacks or odd recurring dreams when you were asleep?"

"I-I don't believe so."

"Think hard, Jim Hawkins. Try to _remember…._

~/~/~/~/~/

_He sat up in bed, recalling an odd dream that consisted of two bright yellow eyes flashing erratically at him and hearing a voice calling him over and over… calling him "Jimmy"…_

_That was after the second week of dealing with the infuriating Dr. Sudayev._

~/~/~/~/~/

_While staring off and listening to the droning of his therapist, Jim had been thinking of a weird recurring flashback of a cyborg teaching him about knots. He wasn't sure when that ever happened to him… he merely categorized it as a result of sleep deprivation. He never really did have an easy time sleeping as it was._

~/~/~/~/~/~/

"I just thought those were really weird dreams. I never considered they were anything but that." Jim admitted.

"Those weren't dreams. Those really did happen. When I placed you under Silver's wing as a cabin boy-him being the ship's cook at the time-he taught you the ways of the ship, since you were ignorant of the protocols and necessary skills to do the tasks charged to you. You were a quick learner, if I remember correctly." Mused the felinoid thoughtfully.

"How old was I when this all occurred?"

"You had just turned fifteen, from what I was told. You were the youngest on my ship."

"It… It makes sense…" He said, aware of everyone looking at him questioningly. "I always thought that the past few years were kind of a blur, as if someone else told me what happened… But what about mom? Does she know anything?"

"Sarah had also been taken into custody when we were arrested. I convinced you four to agree to the memory flash, instead of being hung and imprisoned for letting Silver escape. I think that was the hardest thing to watch; recognition dying in all of your eyes. From there, they injected the three of you with serum to placate you as they took you all away and brought you back to Montressor. They took away B.E.N.'s memory chip and decided to use him as a menial task robot off on a remote planet somewhere in Quadrant Five-Two-Zero-Four."

"But Sarah didn't know Silver, did she? Why would they hang her?" Dimitri asked.

"She didn't, but they were going to imprison her, as well as Doppler and B.E.N., because of their association to us. Hawkins and I would have been hung for our crimes."

Suddenly, a voice called out around them from seemingly nowhere. _"Captain Amelia, this is Colonel Richter. Do you hear me? We've received word that you might need back-up. Come in, Captain Amelia."_

~/~/~/~/~/~/

They stood at the wheel of the ship five minutes later, holding their breath, as Amelia began to respond to the Colonel's call over by the controls. She held the clunky microphone in her hands, thinking over in her mind of what she should say.

"This is Captain Amelia reporting. What is the problem, Colonel?"

"_I had the inclination that you were having difficulties on the ship. I can send a dispatch to your current location in the matter of an hour, if need be, by transport of Nova Cruisers. Please let me know of your coordinates."_

She stumbled on her words, thinking fast. Now that she had basically aligned herself in with taking down the government-and indeed the very man she was talking to-she couldn't very well have reinforcements coming to the ship to kill the few of them that were left. Besides, she was still at the mercy of Captain Sudayev, for she knew that he still didn't exactly take her word for what it was.

She knew it all came down to this moment; of whether she lived to help them and possibly die later if she should be found out by the Colonel, or die by Sudayev's hands here and now. Amelia knew where her heart lay, however, and didn't hesitate in her choice.

"That won't be necessary, Sir. I have the situation under control as we speak. A prisoner had managed to leave one of the cells down in the brig, but they were easily waylaid. As I've always said, the crew you have selected for this mission is without a doubt the best I've had the pleasure to work with."

A momentary pause passed before everyone around her breathed sighs of relief. _"…Very well. I'm sure you have it under control, Captain. I will be calling hourly to check in on your progress back to Fairbronal, to make sure that everything is under control. I know you have quite the hold of prisoners under your watch."_

"Thank you, Sir. Captain Amelia, over and out."

"_This is Colonel Richter, over and out."_

"So what do we do now?" Jim said, breaking the silence.

"It's obvious, isn't it? We go to Fairbronal and give those assholes a fight to remember!" Dimitri said savagely. "But we'll need a bigger crew, considering there are only twenty-seven of us left. That coward, Sinbad, took off with the remainder of his crew over an hour and a half ago. If he would have stayed, we might have struck up a momentary truce with him and joined forces."

"He only managed to escape with eleven others, though." The canid replied, holding onto a recently pacified Gishna in his arms. "That's not much man-power against the Etherium Government and the rest of the Galaxy Police."

"True…"

At this, Amelia spoke up. "What we need to do right now is to find ourselves a crew willing to aid us in this venture. A few of my former crew members are knocked out, but I'm sure I can convince a couple of them to join our ranks. But as for recruiting more, I don't exactly know where we could go."

Suddenly, the whole ship jerked wildly from an unknown force, causing them all to sprawl on the deck. The Primetorian was the only one to safely maintain her balance by jumping out of Delbert's arms and wrapping her tail around the base of the wheel to hang off of it like a pendulum.

Jim staggered to his feet, rubbing his sore back as he did so with a grimace. "What the hell was that?"

Doppler got back up and looked over the control panel, furrowing his brows in confusion as he hit a couple of holographic keys on the board. "I-I'm not sure. Nobody should be out here except for us and _The Compass Blade_ in the _Legacy_'s custody."

"I bet you it's the Colonel's dispatch."

"That's not possible," Amelia shook her head. "He couldn't have gotten the ship out here that fast."

"Could it be Sinbad's ship?" Dimitri asked as he was being pulled up by Jim.

Doppler looked over the information that flashed in the air. "The energy discharge left by his ship indicates that he chose a course that would take him away from here as far as possible, perhaps to find refuge in Sector Nineteen of the galaxy, where many wormholes are known to appear. I don't think he'd be willing to come back with only eleven crew members and half a top mast. He left pretty crippled. I'm surprised he didn't completely destroy his ship using the last amount of fuel he had on a turbo boost."

"Then what the hell happen-" The ship jerked again, but in the opposite direction.

Although they fell once again to the deck, Doppler managed to hang onto the control panel, looking over the readings. A screen popped up, showing a picture of another ship. It had the figurehead of a three-eyed humanoid woman clad in a simple dress, gazing serenely into nothingness, her hair flowing behind her in ringlet waves. Doppler's eyebrows furrowed as he read the name on the hull.

_The Siren_.

"Does anyone know this ship?"

Dimitri and Jim looked at the ship with confusion. "I don't believe I've ever heard of _The Siren_ before." Dimitri replied, shaking his head.

Amelia-instead of looking at the ship on the screen-looked out into the Etherium with searching eyes. Suddenly she pointed to the far right. "Look over there."

The other three followed her gaze. Gishna cooed in wonder from her perch on the wheel as they all witnessed the life-size version of _The Siren_ approached the starboard side.

"What now?" Jim muttered in frustration, taking on a fighting stance.

"Let's hail them first; see what they want." The felinoid walked over to the railing, leaning herself against it as she tried to peer at the crew members onboard the ship. Dimitri walked up alongside her, Jim at his side.

"Ahoy there!" Dimitri yelled. "This is the captain of _The Compass Blade_, as well as the captain of the _RL__S Legacy_! State your intentions or we'll blast you out of the Etherium!"

"We don't have that kind of power to take on a fully functional ship!" The canid whispered frantically, as if afraid those on board the other ship could hear him. "We'll be turned into dust particles before we can manage to draw up sufficient force!"

"That's why it's called a bluff, Doc." Jim rolled his eyes, clapping the canid on the back. "No one in their right mind will take on two ships, considering they don't know that we're crippled."

"Ahoy there!" replied a baritone voice in turn. "This be the cap'n o' _The Siren_! The grandest vessel in all o' the Etherium! If ye don't want to fight us and suffer agonizin' death, I suggest ye hand us all your loot, eh?"

At this, Amelia bristled with indignation. "Who are you to make demands of us? We have not done anything against you!"

"I can asks ye the same question! Who am I addressin'?"

"I'm Captain Sudayev of _The Compass_! Again we ask you, who are you?"

Instead of answering, the voice laughed. "Captain Sudayev, eh? _The_ Captain Sudayev? Yer name is well known around in these parts! There's a price on yer head, as well as on certain members o' yer crew: a Doctor Delbert Doppler and a James Hawkins! Just about everyone is after ye!"

"And who's side are you on?" Jim couldn't help but ask.

"Side? I don't much care to help the Galaxy Police! They'd more than likely clap me in irons rather than hand me over a hundred thousand dubloons! I'm just as famous as ye three, if not more!

If yer willing, I'd be more happy to come aboard so we could discuss more about this! Plus, this'd give me a chance to meet up with a few old friends o' mine!"

"Friends? Forgive us, but no one has ever heard of your vessel before!" Amelia shouted. "Who are you, exactly?"

"Oh, ye know me very well, Cap'n Amelia!"

At this point, the light from a nearby sun shone on the approaching ship, illuminating the speaker from the shadows that had been cloaking him. Revealed though, he was a cyborg with a rather large nose and a portly stomach. He leaned against a cybernetic leg and lowered his arms from his shouting, one being organic and the other being robotic parts. He had an easy smile on his face, his cyborg eye flashing in the sunlight.

"John Silver?!" Amelia cried, shocked.

"Well met, Cap'n!" He grinned. He looked over the four of them, his eyes pausing briefly on Doppler. "Doc! Long time, no see! I thought that was ye! Ye ever get used to that Bonzabeast stew I always made fer ye?" He chuckled heartily.

Then his eyes rested upon Jim at long last. "Ah, Jimbo! It's so great to see ye, my lad! Thought I'd never see ye again after our last encounter! I can't ever thank ye enough for letting me off easily!"

Jim looked at him with astonishment. "S-Silver..?" Although he said the name uncertainly, a small bit of memory came back to him, despite being unable to place the cyborg completely within memory.

"Lemme on board and I can fill ye in on everything that's been happenin' to me ever since we last saw one another!"

End.

_Very Belated Post Script: ATTENTION ALL READERS! I'm sorry to have not added any post script __immediately __after this fanfic; I truly am sorry. I was so happy to have finished _Antidote_ that I completely forgot to mention this wonderful, exciting news: I am going to continue! There is going to be a part 3 in this trilogy of Jimitri awesomeness! I promise! I'm sorry to have kept you waiting on tenterhooks for a glimpse of a hope of me continuing said story/saga/trilogy/what-have-you! I will be continuing on, don't worry! When though? I'll have to find a time when I can start the third part of the story! At the moment, it'll be a while—just keep a look out for the next part! Again, I apologize profusely!_


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